teknoid

Dad's memorial service was held this morning. Very upbeat. A genuine celebration of a life well lived.

Thanks to all.

To answer some of the above questions... His name was Bruce Edward Hoak. Born 5/9/36 and departed 8/5/2016 at 80 years old. A lifelong VERY devout christian. Married 56 years to my Mother who passed away almost 3 years ago on 9/18/2013 from complications brought on by years of of a neuromuscular disorder. Three of his four children were at his bedside with our hands on him when he passed. He knew we were there for him. As I said previously his death is no surprise. Fact is we feel a great deal of relief on his behalf. His quality of life for the last few months has been less than stellar. Thanks to all for thoughts and prayers

Dad lost his 2 year long battle with pancreatic cancer a little after 11:00 this morning. This loss certainly comes as no shock or surprise to any of his family. We are very thankful to have had him around as long as we did. When he was diagnosed in June 2014 he was given 4 to 6 months. Being the fighter that he was he stretched that out to more than 25 months. Thoughts and prayers will be appreciated in the days ahead.

I want one of these so bad I can't stand it. It's a 2016 Mazda MX5 Miata. I currently drive a 93 Miata.

Saw an Ottmar Liebert concert a few years ago near Seattle and it was an amazing 100% acoustic show. Highly recommended. Stellar guitarist. Another vote for Clapton Unplugged. One of my all time favorites.

Looks like a LOT of fun. I have deliberately stayed away from drones. Knowing myself as I do I'm certain that if I play with one I'll end up owning one. Something I simply cannot afford at the moment. So Youthman... How long before a drone calls your house home?

I'm still waiting for dehydrated water so I won't have to tote so much when I go camping.

An Onkyo Integra A-9711 pushing 80 watts per channel in to a pair of Heresys will piss of the neighbors AND get you a visit from the local sheriff office. Ask me how I know that.

And now retired http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/03/06/broncos-announce-peyton-mannings-retirement/?cid=eref:nbcnews:text

I like VLC pretty well. It basically gives me a single app that plays music and video. Give it a look. http://www.videolan.org/vlc/index.html

What exactly defines "vintage"? I'm currently running an Onkyo Integra A-9711 integrated amp driving a pair of 84 Heresys along with a smallish Dayton subwoofer. The primary source is a Dual 1245 sporting a Shure V15 Type III. It all sounds great to me and all of my friends that listen to the system are pretty much amazed. Onkyo produced that amp 1996-1999 so at worst it's coming up on 20 years old. I'm pretty sure it doesn't qualify as "vintage" but I can't help but wonder if it would benefit from a trip to the shop. Not long after I got the amp from one of the local Klipsch forum members it developed some issues. Certainly nothing the seller could have been aware of. Gladly a liberal application of DeoxIT Gold to the pots and switches resolved the problems For many MANY years I had the good fortune to be good friends with an excellent electronics technician who LOVED working on audio kit. I've long since lost count of how many pieces of kit that I had him rebuild for me. Most were resounding success stories but a few were disappointments. Go figure? I recall him re-capping (rebuilding) a Marantz 2270 for me that I was absolutely STUNNED at how much better it sounded. A couple of years later I had him do the same to a Marantz 2240 and I was equally STUNNED at how bad it sounded. When I complained he told me that he returned it to "factory spec". Perhaps the 2270 was just that much better from the get go. That surprised me because I owned a 2240 new out of the box in 94-ish and thought it was very good. Again... Go figure? A couple of years ago I tried to track him down for another project. I managed to find one of his daughters who informed me that he had passed away. Very sad to me. He was one of the "good ones". I could go on and on for hours about my experiences with "vintage" electronics and getting them back to "spec" and whether that's a good thing or not.

I understand Micro$haft's logic behind this. In makes no financial sense to continue support for outdated browsers. I get it. I just wish it wasn't going to negatively impact me quite so badly. I work for a company that provides IT support for a number of car dealerships. These dealerships all use web based apps to conduct their business. None of the apps play nice with IE 11, and NOT AT ALL with Windows 10. This means that the 400+ PCs under our care will be vulnerable to whatever the black hats decide to throw out there. Big fun! Obviously this is NOT Microsoft's fault. It is the fault of the developers of the car dealership apps. They "should" be keeping up but they're not. Either way my life is about to get a lot more interesting and a LOT more busy. Thank you Microsoft... NOT

Yes it is. Agree that its a good pressing. Listened to it last night.

After Christmas bump to the top

It was a good day here at teknoid land. The rest of my Christmas present to myself came. In the "software" department is 4 of my favorite albums all on 180G vinyl. In the "hardware" department is: And in the "buzzware" department a good friend who knows that I enjoy such things from time to time dropped this off:

The main Tampa antenna farm is 45 miles from me and the main Orlando antenna farm is 55 miles from me. In addition to that two there are a number of "off axis" channels that aren't worth the effort to receive. If I wanted to receive ALL of the broadcast channels close to me it would take 5 or 6 antennas. I ain't gonna go there. I'd like very much to be only able to use UHF only antennas but many of the local channels are still broadcasting in the VHF end of the spectrum.

Free HDTV Today I got started on my antenna install. Parts-Express had antennas on sale so I picked up a couple of them. My boss gave me a used 4 section antenna mast that he salvaged from somewhere. A spool RG6QS and a package of Snap-N-Seal F-Connectors were also required. Where I live I have access to Tampa and Orlando DMAs thus 2 antennas. This is a more or less a preliminary install. I have at least 10' more height to be attained with the mast. It was WAY windy today and I wasn't comfortable being on the roof. One day very soon I'll get back up there and finish the install. Even not yet at full height I get almost 70 channels. Once I get the directionality dialed in and the mast at full height that number should climb to closer to 90. Of course by the time I delete the channels I'll never watch the number will be around 20 or so. This is what they look like: If anybody else would like to do this I used 2 of these: http://www.parts-express.com/antop-v-uhf-272-hdtv-vhf-uhf-outdoor-triple-threat-deep-fringe-yagi-antenna--210-512

My first album to spin on my newly acquired Dual 1245 turntable. So far i'm half way through record 1 side 2 and I'm loving it. At one point in my life there were upwards of 3000 albums (vinyl) either in active circulation or in storage. Don't know what possessed me to garage sale them or give them all away but I did. Today marks album number one of what I hope will become a small collection that that will provide me with hours and hours of listening enjoyment. The hardware involved is pretty modest. An Onkyo Integra A-9711 integrated amp, an Onkyo Integra T-4711 tuner, an Onkyo DX-C340 6 disc CD changer, a Dual 1245 turntable with a Shure V15 type III cartridge, a Dayton Audio SUB-1200 subwoofer and finally a pair of 84 HBR Heresys. Not "audiophile" or "high end" by any stretch of the imagination but sounding pretty D@MN good to my 57 year old badly damaged hears right now.

I got this today: It's a VERY nice example of a Dual 1245 belt drive automatic. Complete with a Shure V15 III. And I actually received this on Thursday it had to wait until today to get set up. One of the feet was broken out of the box so I spent some quality time with a tube of SuperGlue to make things right. I felt the need to add a little thump to my Heresys. The subwoofer is a Dayton (Parts Express) 12" driven by 120W. I know... I know... Pretty "low rent" as subs go but my listening room isn't very big and I'm not a crank it up and shake the walls kind of listener. Besides I live in half a duplex so I have to respect my neighbor. If any of you are listening to Heresys without a subwoofer do yourself a favor. Cough up $138 and get one of these guys from PE. It hits WAY above what one would expect based on price. My amp (Onkyo Integra A-9711) is too old to have a subwoofer out so I needed a sub that did the whole speaker level connections. This one did. I'm almost a happy camper here. The sub is great and the TT appears to be great but I have nothing to listen to. I really expected my album order to arrive BEFORE the turntable did. CRUD!!!

I purchased these 2/18/15 to use in my Heresy rebuild until I could afford a pair of K55s. I now have my K55s so I need to find a home for these. They're both in as new condition and operationally perfect. Also included is a pair of horn gaskets and a pair of o-rings. I used the o-rings because the openings on the drivers are bigger than the hole in the gasket. I really thought I had the boxes and paperwork but I suspect they got lost in the last move. Sorry! Asking price is $50 delivered to a CONUS address. No additional charge for using PayPal as it is my preferred payment method. Detailed info about these guys here: http://www.parts-express.com/selenium-d250-x-gw-1-phenolic-horn-driver-1-3-8-18-tpi--264-204 Thanks for looking!

Or just the frames. I can buy the cloth and cover them myself. Prefer black but anything will do for me. I really REALLY need to cover the drivers of my recently restored Heresys before my 2 granddaughters (2 & 3) visit again. Anybody.... Anybody.... Bueller.....

I am very thankful that my Dad is in his 18th month surviving pancreatic cancer. When he was first diagnosed he was given less than 6 months to live. Today I got to enjoy another Thanksgiving dinner with him. Hopefully I'll get to enjoy even more.

My take on the traditional Comprese Salad I don't really care for Basil, fresh or otherwise. For whatever reason it all tastes rather "metalic" to me. I guess my taste receptors got screwed up somewhere along the line of some 40+ years of one substance abuse or another. No matter... These days I lay down a bed of Romaine hearts, add 3 or 4 sliced Campari tomatoes, a few generous slices of fresh Mozzarella secured from the local Italian grocer and top it all with Kosher salt, corse ground black pepper and very VERY good XVOO. Combine with a few of slices of a decent locally baked French bread and a glass or two or seven of cheap red wine and I've got a meal that fills my tummy an lulls me to sleep. Who can ask for anything more? Here's what it looks right before I shove it in my pie-hole less the bread and the wine.