h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...two hour wrestling match with balky server systems later...

Apparently they've still not licked the internal link bug with Pliny.

Mr. X's links came up okay in Brunel and Gegg's link worked okay in Pliny.

Neanderthals material posted to useless facts thread.

Gremlins and computer bugs, how much easier the life of the laptop or stack computer would be, if only they didn’t find a way in

I think its about 25% unresolved Pliny , 25% Firefox, 25% my new VZW MIFI 4Glte broadband wireless and about 25% my own stupid fumbling.

My 10 year old tower computer, bless it, is still working and is running on Windows XP.

Its memory, liken to mine, could do with a bit of an up grade.

I do really need to change itas it is not compatible with my new Kodak hero 7.1 and only allows me to run my Flight Simulator 2002 and not the newer Flight Simulator X Deluxe Edition.

My girlfriend has bought me, amongst other things for my birthday, a Kingston Data Traveler, just to back up some of my more important data, just in case the day comes when the old boy won’t work

I'm working from a 4.5 year old Toshiba Satellite laptop myself, had the BIOS upgraded and an additional gigabyte of cpu capacity installed month before last, besides upgrading my broadband wireless hardware last month.

Its a stronger machine now, but system ripples are inevitable.




I've got Windows Vista and Ubuntu Linux installed on this machine.

Tremendous advantage with Linux in its various forms, you can back up your entire hard disk, including the operating system, basically wipe the machine clean and have its entire capacity available for a new project without losing anything in process, boot from your archival disk at your leisure.

As a matter of fact I try to keep about a third of my total hard disk blank and unformatted besides any active partitions.

Windows allows only one active copy and one archival copy of the OS.

It’s amazing how things progress, you commit yourself to a purchase and its not long before, what you operate becomes obsolete.
In my case , admittedly, 10 years is a long time to run a system, you inevitably find there are no more upgrades or security patches for it and as mentioned , any new printers etc, will not run with it.
I tend to get very attached to the things I buy, has in the case of my hifi. The oldest items there are my Mission speakers, almost 30 years old and still sound a dream, bright, full of depth, good imagery and still capable of handling the latest amp I bought, whilst the retiring pioneer amp was lovingly boxed back up and put into retirement
In the corner of my office is my first turntable, Rotel RP830, an ornament now, as I’m unable to secure a new motor for it, the Pro-ject turntable that replaced it, does good justice to my now aging record collection.
Same with my cameras, all brilliant in there day, but try and buy film for them, they liken to my Rotel, sit on shelves, reminding me of there glory days, whilst my latest Nikon (3 months old) has already been superseded.

Ah, winternights, won't be long then before you'll want a bigger house with more shelves?

I often think I'll never get any more speakers... then someone turns up and there's an ancient set in need of loving care and attention, and I have to find the space for them I'm currently awaiting the arrival of a pair of ancient Warfdales which have been languishing in a shed for some years ... no idea what state they'll be in

Ah, old Wharfedale speakers, I remember them, from the days when I used to work as a junior salesman for Dixon’s, many, many ‘s ago.

You cannot beat, wooden cabinets, even the old trusty chipboard is better at producing a mellower/ richer sound, as against to these plastic things they knock together, now and days.

Hope the speakers turn out to be

Boy, I’m getting to sound, more and more. like my old Dad, everyday

I like to think of my house as a 'refuge for old HiFi speakers and components' a little like a refuge for dogs or cats... only hifi gear
I rotate the speakers... so they each get a chance to be listened too every few months
The best find recently was the old Celestions, which a friend, bought from a friend for five quid and a bottle of cider... His friend had 'saved' them from a skip... I had to do work to them though, mainly just replacing the binding posts which were knackered, (and I still need to build new fronts for them)... Not sure what wood the cabinats are on them, but I really like the sound... Mind, the ancient KLH ones are pretty good too, and I'm sure the cabinats on them are teak or soemthing like that (It certainly isn't MDF as I had to enlarge the hole on teh backs of them to take newer, larger binding post plates too, and it took a heck of a lot of sawing and filing to get though the wood...)...
I'vve also, got a set of hand built, tanoys (hand built to teh origional tanoy spec by an electrition and HiFi geek), not quite yet established what they've got inside, but its either 18 inch or 12 inch bass cones... I'm just not looking forward to carrying those things upstiars to the front room.... they're nearly the same height as me!
I'd only be able to use them things in the front room though... they might be a bit big for the bedroom or kitchen Mind, the celestions and KLG are decent enough sized for sound, but small enough to fit in teh bedroom or kitchen... somehow

ahh.
another worse thing ever invented.... Tiny 'accomidation units'.... you know, these titchey little flats that estate agents try to convince people are worth 900 quid a month for a couple of rooms that don't even quite equate to the floor area of a couple of standard sized cubicles in a pub toilet... at tlleast this plachas enough room to put speakers in, and be able to hear them mind, cealings could be higher.... logically could do with more clearance above the speakers as well as space to the sides and in front... ooo... Must get a house, designed around the speakers!

Loveme, love my speakers, my girlfriendloves music too, so my old speakers, amps, cd players are used daily, they all live in different rooms, but they do get used, bar the ones that are too poorly or I cannot fix and get parts for.

They are either boxed up or are ornaments, liken to my old Rotel turntable.

I’ve been a Mission fan for the last 20 odd years, blown a few pairs; my first 700 Mk2 did me proud, brilliant bass but clean, clear mid and top end.

I still have some 700s in the lounge on a pair of old Atacama stands, these run side by side with my Kef Crest 2’s, much brighter sound wise, they compliment my very varied taste in music.

Must admit, I’ve never built my owner, tinkered with the bits that still worked from the speakers I have blown. Used to mount them in my old cars

The old Capri, Mk1/2, 1600, overhead cam, had so much kit in it, it looked like Blackpool’s illuminations inside

The girlfriend is a Panasonic fan and to be fair her small mini system in the dining room sounds brilliant, wooden speakers, small but handles sound extremely well.

The Panasonic surround sound system in the bedroom is unbelievable; the bass from the floor whoofer makes the house rock, certainly not for the faint hearted or those who suffer from nose bleeds.

House, designed around the speakers!, the Albert hall in London comes to mind, heating would be an issue and it’s a long way to go to the loo every time you need a pee

>> The old Capri, Mk1/2, 1600, overhead cam..<<



I had one of them. Mid seventies, German made version
of the Mustang sold here as the Mercury Capri, a sports
hatchback with a bubbled rear window hatch, discs all round,
and available here only as a 2 liter 4 cylinder or the 302
cubic inch V8 both with a four speed (German made) gearbox.
One of the best cars I ever owned. Last seen rusting away
in the woods and full of mice in the upholstery. Right next
to a 64 Caddie big-block 4 door hardtop I got for a song
and was always gonna fix up some day. The squirrels got
the Caddie - they being a better class of rodent.



~jwf~

Eeeee. Wharfedales - I remember when they were actually made in Wharfedale.

I still have a pair of 505.2's. I don't think I have any reason to consider changing them. Luvly.

I was separated from a pair of JBL Minims by divorce. The tragedy is that she probably junked them and bought some carp from the high street to replace the set up that they were part of.

PP.

If we're still on speakers... once had a super bass pair, each the size of a single-width chest of drawers. After one of our house moves they failed (got damp maybe?).

I still have the magnets in the workshop, gripping the tops of bandsaw and pillar drill and conveniently holding specific allen keys, spanners etc that I use fairly often, nearby.

My favorite ashtrays are a pair of Goodmans (when they were good and made in the UK), mid-range units from I think* an old pair of either K1s or K2s speakers... they're sealed mid range units, so work well as ashtrays... and if I'm doing any DIY repair type stuff, I clean em out, and use them to hold any screws or bolts etc, as they stick to the magnets and so can't get lost
I still keep trawling the second-hand shops for old speakers, though I'm getting a bit more picky, but hope one day to find a real gem or two lurking about and for a silly cheap price, just because they're old

My next speaker project is a real DIY effort, well, the next one after I've built the new fronts for the dittons, as I@ve a pair of very expensive, modern active studeo monitors, which have non functioning 'active' electronics... kevlar coated drive units, and big*... and I'm gona turn them... somehow into passive speakers Though I've not worked otu the specifics of it, I plan on having volume control (passive), built into each speaker, to control the tweeter, so the relative volume of trebble to bass can be adjusted on the speakers themselves Just need a few lambs to turn up so I can steal their wool for packing them out with

Volume control? Lambswool? I'm told concrete is best - and easily pourable.

They're heavy enough without concrete in them! There were a few speakers, in the way back when, whcih included an attenuater/volume control, on the speaker units themselves, to allow to alter the tweeter down/up in relation to the drive unit/bass unit, just thought it'd be an interesting thing to add to the ones I'm doing, as it wouldn't really take any time or money to do... as far as I can think anyhow...

Hmmm, I used to own a soldering iron, seem to remember putting more holes in my bedroom carpet than anything else.
The level of electronics your mentioning is well out of my league, my brotherwas the electronics genius in the family.

Sounds as if you’re trying to create some kind of Hybrid active design, using two internal amps after a 2 way crossover, separating low and mid-high frequencies.
One amp for low and another sharing its amplified output which is then which is split by a passive 2-way crossover.
There are benefits to be had by allowing each driver its own dedicated power amplifier, noise reduction, cleaner sound but as you mention it involves a lot of work and careful design.
I wish you all the best

Oh, yeswool is a good packer too

I have found, mainly by experimentation, that although you can spend by the bucket for expensive speaker dampening matterial, a pair of cheap artifical fibre pillows, for just a few pounds, does a job just as good (to my hearing at least)
Mind, some of the internal dampening sheets for putting on the inside of the cabinat are pretty good too, and not always wildly expensive...


Ahh, I'm not going down the active cross--over route... that would* be beyond my ability with a soldering iron and a box of componants...

At the moment, the monitors are* active, but the active bits are knackered in one, and having had it repaired err two or three times now, each time it going again, I've given up on the getting it repaired route...

I'll take them both to passive units, with a second order crossover (passive), in each; but have a small volume knob, on the back (where one attached to the active electronics currently is), if I wire this with a resisstor (need to work out the values for the resistance though in reality I'll probably just have to play about with various bits until it works), anyhow, if I wire that up, between the cross-over, and the terminal on the tweeter, it should* act as a passive volume control; probably not full range, as it might not take it to zero (which I'd not want anyhow), and of course, it won't be able to take the volume any higher than if there was no volume control/resistor on the circuit); but it'd allow me to alter the voluem of the tweeter down, in comparason to the bass/drive unit.... (I think)...

I'm not much of a wizz with electronics, though I have a friend who's better than I, who's brain I can pick.... and, this idea will follow my useual route, of experimental electronics design.... I'll just fiddle with it, and play about until either I get it to work, or I give up on the idea! At least I can't give myself a serious electric shock messing about with passive speakers....