Saturn5

I hope it was Mountain Dew Throwback. That's made with real sugar using the original recipe, not high fructose corn syrup. It tastes SO much better! Not really sweeter, but a much cleaner taste. There's an overly sweet aftertaste from the regular HFCS sodas that you don't get with real sugar. It's a limited release, so if you find some, you should treat yourself.

Yup, black eyed peas for New Years Day. And baked beans on the morning before a manned space launch. (some tradition, huh - astronauts get steak and eggs, and launch personnel got baked beans)

I just got a set of S2m headphones for my new Droid phone. I knew the headphones would be good, but holy crap - I didn't realize headphones could be THIS good! Well done, Klipsch! This makes me think I may need to get a pair of X5 or X10s for the home rig. [H] It's a sickness. But I'm not complaining. []

How do you hydrolock an engine even with mechanical injection? The fuel injected isn't enough to lock the engine up - it's designed to be compressed that much before ignition. If it doesn't ignite, it just gets blown out the exhaust valve on the next revolution. You never have more than one injection cycle worth of fuel in the cylinder at any given time. In a turbocharged engine, once ignition is killed the heat and power driving the turbo stop, and boost drops. In a supercharged engine, the power driving the supercharger stops, and superchargers put a serious drag on a running engine. If anything it will cause the engine to decelerate more quickly than a normally aspirated engine once the ignition is cut. If I'm missing something, please enlighten me.

I'm a big fan of Outlaw Audio. Great equipment at very reasonable prices for what you get. They don't currently have an HDMI pre/pro available, but the new model 997 with HDMI and Trinnov Optimizer should be out sometime soon. (it's been delayed, so n official release date yet) http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/997.html

I thought I had lost some of my hearing, then I got my RF7s. Problem solved. Even the deaf guy down the block can here these babies. []

They're both good brands. I prefer Western-Digital these days. Seagate used to be the top dog, IMO, but their quality has dropped. They're still good, just not what they used to be. As long as you stay away from Hatachi or Maxtor, you should be ok. For internal drives, I use the W-D "RE" series drives. (RE, RE2, etc.) Those are the "RAID Edition" drives that are intended for workstations. The "SE" drives are their low price point drives. I haven't checked lately, but last time I bought some, the RE drives had a 5 year warranty and the SE had a 3 year.

That looks a lot like a blackbody I used when I worked at NASA, less the the little dots on the front. It was a controlled temperature device that could be set to a given temp and you used it to calibrate temperature sensing devices. Oh yes! I want to spend big bucks on tube amps, then add something to make them not sound like tube amps. [:^)] I'd also like to find a device that can make a 1945 Rothschild taste like Boone's Farm. []

FYI, I have lost a computer to lighning strike on my phone line. I had a surge protector on the PC, but the power surge ran in through the phone line, and my modem survived long enough to destroy the motherboard before it fried. When you look at items like the APC C10, also consider the warranty. For $50 you get "Lifetime replacement or repair warranty, $350,000 Lifetime Equipment Protection Policy." Even if the box did nothing, that might be $50 well spent. It's cheaper than most extended warranties they hock at Best Buy.

Nice. Your clever wit wins you a free internet. [8-)] Hey, if you want to spend $5000 on equipment and think it's worth only a $20 bargain bin surge protector, be my guest. I wanted something that provided voltage regulation as well as surge protection. I'm more concerned with dirty power or fluctuating power than I am a lightening strike. I've got homeowner's insurance for that. For someone in your situation, you'd probably be better off seeing if your power company offers electronics insurance. The ones here do. You buy their "whole house" surge protection, which is basically just an insurance policy that says they'll replace any electronics damaged due to power surges, etc. How much you should spend should be based on the quality of the power in your home, and your tolerance for risk to your equipment. If nothing ever happens, then you only need a $20 surge protector. However; if your system is ever damaged by power surges, you'll know you should have spent more. You can do that next time.

2000 Pontiac Trans Am convertible. 77k miles And there's also my 1988 Pontiac Fiero Formula. 177k miles. I need to get a "practical" car. [:|]

I use an APC power conditioner. It does more than just protect against power surges. It also filters line noise and can trim the voltage to maintain a steady voltage into the system. I notice when I crank up the system, it goes into voltage boost mode, suggesting my home voltage may drop slightly under those conditions. How much have you spent on all of your home theater equipment? Now compare that with $50 vs $200 to protect it. If you're spending thousands of dollars on electronics, why cheap out with the yard sale power protection? It's like buying a $2000 computer with a $20 power supply, and then wondering why it reboots all the time and your motherboard dies after 6 months.

I have been in this situation before. The throttle stuck wide open on my car. I put the clutch in and let the revs fly while reaching for the key to kill the ignition. You can't lock the steering wheel accidentally. An automatic has to be in park, and you have to push a release button on a stick shift to turn the key all the way back to lock. Yes, you will lose your power steering and brakes, but you should have enough vacuum for brakes to stop the car unless you're going exceedingly fast. I was doing about 45 so it wasn't a big issue. About the rev limiters - most modern cars have both rev and speed limiters. My '99 Grand Am has 2 rev limiters. One for when it's in gear - set at the redline of the engine, and the other for when it's in neutral - and that keeps the engine from revving past about 3500 rpm out of gear. You can leave it in park and put a brick on the accelerator and the engine will just hit 3500 and stay there. It's not the best programming, though. In a case of stuck throttle, if you threw it into neutral while the car was moving, it would still use the redline limiter because the car is moving. The car has to be stopped for the neutral rev limiter to be active. I'd hope they changed that before going out of business.

A big thanks to all the Veterans on tomorrow, as well as a hearty Happy Birthday today to the U.S. Marine Corps. 234 years old today.

You're making me homesick with these pics! I recognize that view from the OSB! I'm so jealous.

Yes, and the Outlaw pre/pro has a Stereo Bypass mode that bypasses all digital processing and feeds the 2 channel stereo straight to your L & R speakers. I have heard some people say they do a better job with movies than 2 channel music, but to my ears they do a great job on both. I'm sure there's better, or something more specialized for 2 channel stereo, but I doubt you'll find something that does everything as well for the money. If you want a dedicated 2 channel rig later - use that as an excuse to get some K-horns and tube amps. []

Absolutely. For the size room I have, 200W is overkill. However, I was actually downsizing from a 425W/ch QSC amp on my RF-7s, so I wanted to make sure they never wanted for power. [] Depending on your speakers and the size of your room, either the 7075 or 7125 will be plenty. The 7075 should compare very favorably with typical AV receivers in the 100-150W/ch range. When Outlaw rates it at 75W/ch, you'll get every one of those watts, on every channel, at the same time. Most AV receivers are rated much more leniently.

I've got an Outlaw 970 pre/pro with the Outlaw 7500 amp driving RF-7, RC-7 stage and RS-62 surround speakers. They positively rock. The amp is rated at 200 W/ch, and I cannot get anywhere close to taxing the amp before it feels like I'm going to blow the windows out. Great sound at low volumes with lots of detail, and it just gets bigger and bigger as the volume goes up. I don't have Blu-Ray at the moment, but when I get one, I'll be able to use the 7.1 analog inputs on the 970 until I upgrade to the new Outlaw 997 after it's released. Outlaw and Klipsch is a potent combination.

Just think how a single national ID will make all these problems go away. One ID that's your passport, your driver's license, everything. All referenced in any and all necessary government databases so all organizations know exactly who you are. I don't like the idea of a national ID - but as the inconvenience and bureaucracy increase, people will become willing to accept it. They'll even ask for the government to solve this problem - any privacy they may give up is a small price to pay for avoiding the inconvenience and possibility of being mislabeled a terrorist. (or I guess the correct term today would be man caused disaster creater?)

What else would a woman wear in a 60's vision of the 22nd century but a miniskirt and gogo boots?

The V-30 systems I've seen online run about $3000. Before I'd lay out that much on the Bose V-30, I'd want to hear other systems in the same price range. Klipsch has a few: WF-34 - http://www.klipsch.com/na-en/products/wf-34-home-theater-overview/ XL-23 - http://www.klipsch.com/na-en/products/xl-23-home-theater-overview/ RF-62 - http://www.klipsch.com/na-en/products/rf-62-home-theater-system-overview/ Three different product lines with different attributes, but all 5.1 channel home theater systems for around $3000. True, you'll need to supply your own amp and DVD player, so you could knock it down to the next lower system with prices in the $2000-$2500 range, leaving enough left over for an AVR and DVD player. If after comparing all of those systems (including any other brands you might think of), you should go with what sounds the best to you.

PWK did not start building speakers for the masses. Many people can't tell the difference or don't care. When I upgraded to my Klipsch setup, it forced me to upgrade other components as well because they showed me the inadequacies of the rest of my equipment. If you like listening to MP3s, or streaming audio on your PC, or even most modern compressed CDs, you probably won't be impressed. I have my PC hooked into my stereo but even when playing the best MP3s I have through my system, it doesn't come anywhere near sounding as good as the same material would sound in Dobly Digital played through the same system from my DVD player. When you say something sounds "great" that's a subjective evaluation and has no reference unless you compare it to something else. My Klipsch Promedia computer speakers sound incredible. I actually used them has my home theater speakers for years. But they don't hold a candle to my RF-7 setup I have now. I didn't fully appreciate what the difference between a "big sound" and "loud" was until I had my current system. I've never heard Klipschhorns, and to be quite honest, I'm in no hurry to hear them. If they are as big a jump above my RF-7s as my RF-7s were above my Promedia, then I would be disappointed that I can't afford a new pair of horns. I have found a sound that I am deleriously happy with at a price I can afford. If a Bose system fits that bill for you - you should buy it. But you should listen to other systems in the same price range to see if they deliver a more pleasing sound to your ears for the same money.

That was Challenger, not Columbia. Battlestar Galactica had some fine looking women, and is also one of the few sci-fi shows where they've played strip poker on camera...

That would be Vampira, aka Mona McKinnon, from Plan 9 in Outer Space.