BillFrugge <pinback@darkstar.spc> wrote:
>On 2019-07-21 06:06:43 +0000, dontno314 said:
>
>> BorkedBorg@13of9.com wrote:
>>> On Sat, 20 Jul 2019 23:08:29 GMT, dontno314 <dontno314@hushmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> BorkedBorg@13of9.com wrote:
>>>>> On Sat, 20 Jul 2019 19:05:57 GMT, dontno314 <dontno314@hushmail.com>
>>>>>wrote:
>>>>>
>>>> (snip)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Read NIVEN "Known Space Series!"
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Oh Yes! And since then, dozens of others. All-time favourite: Frank
>>>>>>> Herbert's Dune although I was far less impressed with the others in the
>>>>>>> series. My latest discovery, made just a few years ago when I could
>>>>>>>still
>>>>>>> read comfortably, was CJ Cherryh. Her Company Wars series was so
>>>>>>> reminiscent
>>>>>>> of the books that got me reading when I was young.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What's your problem with reading? Because of changes in my eye sight, I
>>>>>>use
>>>>>> a
>>>>>> 11" Android tablet with Kindle and change the font/size to read
>>>>>> comfortably.
>>>>>> I
>>>>>> also use magnifiers to read paper text (and a 4x lit headset to read
>>>>>> labels!).
>>>>>> With 40' of books in my library, I am getting pissed at aging!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Maybe I can make suggestions.
>>>>>
>>>>> I read voraciously when I was younger. Now I pick up a book and within
>>>>> minutes my eyelids are drooping. Maybe it's too much TV and computer.
>>>>> I'm already wearing bifocals. I recently got rid of boxes and boxes of
>>>>>books
>>>>> I'd gathered over the years. Lots of charities wanted them delivered. I
>>>>> gave
>>>>> them to the first person who came, boxed them and carried them upstairs.
>>>>> Since
>>>>> they've been gone I'm doing a lot less sneezing--they certainly collected
>>>>> dust. LOL.
>>>>>
>>>>> (I should do the same with my records. After CDs and USB sticks it's
>>>>>such a
>>>>> PITA to have to get up every ten minutes to turn the record over.)
>>>>
>>>> Hey, after 40+ years in the IT industry, my eyes have turned to sh*t. They
>>>> warned us in the '00 about carpal tunnel, but never about tearing eyes and
>>>>a
>>>> computer squint!
>>>>
>>>> Still, I'm an analog guy when it comes to published or pressed software. No
>>>> need for power, no DRM and no device (aside from a turntable and amp)!
>>>
>>> Ha! My nym in a certain web forum is AnalogGuy
>>>
>>>>
>>>>it
>>>> leaves me wonder how their mind works. In fact the first thing I do is look
>>>> at
>>>> How
>>>> they organize the books as well as the selection.
>>>
>>> Me too. I move pianos and I'm in a lot of houses and I always check out
>>> people's books and, if I see them, records. Same reasons as you!
>>>
>>>>
>>>>those
>>>> them
>>>
>>> Too funny! Me too.
>>>
>>> You'd be surprised how many grand pianos I move for people who only have
>>>them
>>> because of the impression they give their friends. Can't play them worth
>>> s__t! Most of them will admit it.
>>
>> My younger brother always wanted a piano to learn to play and my father
>>always
>> refused him, (he was a dick that way). So when my brother became successful
>>he
>> and his wife bought a Yamaha Grand for the house. My brother would try learn
>> how to play, but never did. Then he hoped that his daughter would, but she
>>had
>> no interest.
>>
>> When he moved to Florida, he sold it. One of the major regrets of his life
>>was
>> never learning how.
>>
>> We both pick up guitar and he played quite well. I, on the other hand (pun
>> intended), have a frozen right thumb and that limited what I could do.
>>
>> So here we are, in a group specializing in "vintage-tv". Has it ever occurred
>> to you (or anyone else following this conversation) that "vintage" is a
>> relative term?
>>
>> I'm in the process of digitizing my DVD and Blu Rays to digital because the
>> price of external Tb's drives keep going down. And as I sort through my
>>movies
>> / TV collection, THEN is when I feel old. I know and love films from the
>> 1930's, 40s, etc. Movies that I would watch on the Late, Late Early Show
>> growing up. And I realize that the shows I'm requesting or downloading are
>>the
>> one I watched growing up in my Pre-teens, teens, 20s and so on.
>>
>> It's when I look at the year that a series started that I have to pinch
>>myself
>> to remember that this was 20-years ago, 30-years ago. It doesn't feel that
>>way!
>> I watch the orginal Battlestar Galactic and a whisper of a memory tells me
>>that
>> I first saw it in the Student Union on a 6' projector screen! That Buffy and
>> Beauty and the Beast were watched with my first wife. And that everything
>>after
>> is filed in my mind as "current".
>>
>> But we are here. And I hope that those who are not bordering on decrepit are
>> D/Ling them and find the joy and satisfaction that bring us here in search
>>of a
>> missing piece of memory that needs to be filled.
>>
>> Pi
>
>I often reject the 'vintage' label. To me, it refers only refers to the
>programs that I know came before me. The shows I remember watching on
>television (pre-vhs/dvd) couldn't be vintage because I'm not vintage.
>Right?
>
>Yes, I remember watching Battlestar Galactica when it first aired. And
>then not watching Galactica 1980 after the first episode... Does that
>make me vintage? LOL
>
>Ha! Whenever I see a piano, I want to sit down and play it. Even if
>it's just to see if it is tuned properly. At my age, I still want to
>sit down and learn piano. (Self-taught myself to play guitar.) These
>days, however, I'm happy building myself an analog synthesizer and
>trying to play it like Keith Emerson.
>
>I've been digitizing a lot of my DVDs too. I found out long ago that
>switching them is a pita. You have to first find the disc, and I don't
>really feel like watching 8 episodes in a row. So then you are
>swtiching them every 30-60 minutes! Once they're on HDD, you can call
>any one of them up at will. Since the price of drives have come down,
>it's become far more practical.
>
>... and so the movies I put in my collection include a lot of the
>movies I watched as a kid. All the old Abbott & Costello movies, the
>Bowery Boys, Universal monster movies, the Marx Brothers, and then
>there's the movies that used to be on the Sammy Terry's show on Friday
>night out of Indianapolis: Invasion of the Star Creatures, Invasion of
>the Saucer Men, and She, for example.
HA!
When my U-matic and VHS collection got un-manageable I started an Excel
workbook to track them. Each tape got a number and was catalogued along with
the Number, Title and Subject matter. Then when writable DVDs and Blu Rays came
out and became affordable, I started to conversion from analogue to digital.
Now that had to be done in real-time.
Moving away from tape was the most time consuming challenge. Going from optical
to HD was a snap. As the move to ripping grew, so did the tools and apps. The
first major one was HandBreak, soon to be followed a many others.
As the technology matured, so did the tools. Now I use MakeMKV (free) and
DVDFab. Pop in a disc and let the app rip it into episodes. The longest part of
the process is that all the apps rip the tracks and label them by track number.
the title of the episode or find the writer/director combo to match the title
(thank you Wikipedia!).
That original Excel workbook has grown and morphed as my needs have changed. It
got to the point where I had to keep the list on my various smart phones so
buying dups.!
So today I am literally looking at a series of piles of discs from various
decades to be converted and stored on external hard drives. They were stored in
still the spreadsheet grows!
Change of subject.
I saw ELP live in the press pit once and was able to tap into the mix board
with a cassette recorder (was covering music for the school paper). And I was
able to do the same thing with Renaissance.
During that time I was experimenting with a friend using a mini Moog. He had a
company that disassembled and tuned church pipe organs. So in addition to
having perfect pitch, he could play the organ like it was one of HIS organs! He
also knew electronics. We teamed up and began to make our own hardware. Custom
crossovers for speakers and enclosures. He did the skull sweat of designing the
circuits and I would etch the boards and solder. Somewhere I still have my
slipstick and notes (Damn I miss Rat Shack!).
We would experiment with the synth and two TEAC reel-to-reel decks. Creating
delays by feeding the input into one, then moving the decks apart for the
playback head to pick up the delay. We had marked out on the floor the distance
between the decks by seconds and would do concerts in the dorm.
You might want to check out this YouTube channel Rick Beato:
https://www.youtube.com/user/pegzch/featured
Later,
Pi
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