_forumlogo.png.a607ef20a6e0c299ab2aa6443aa1f32e.png)
Dave Garrett
-
Posts
1,212 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Donations
0.00 USD
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Posts posted by Dave Garrett
-
-
I liked last year's version better.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19181558/ColeTrain_BreakingT_shirt_2048x2048.jpg)
-
On 10/6/2020 at 8:45 PM, Rooster_Ties said:
Maybe a year ago(?) Comcast moved TCM up to some mega-sports package that’s an additional $15 or $20 per month more (and we’ve already got a fairly expansive package as it is) — and now we don’t get it any more.
Annoying as shit. We didn’t watch tons of movies on TCM, but maybe 20-25 per year (so a fair amount).
I’m also famous for DVR-ing lots of things just to sample them, but often watching things in their entirety, that I’d only intended to see a bit of, just for a few minutes of some particular actor/tress years before (or after) their best known years, or in some obscure role.
But not any more, and I’m NOT ponying up $180 more per year just to see channel I’ve always had access too for almost 20 years prior, without paying through the nose for it.
I likewise refused to pay another $10 a month to keep TCM when Comcast/Xfinity moved it to the premium sports & entertainment package. And it really pissed me off to do without it, as TCM is one of a handful of channels that I watch for at least a little while almost every day.
However, my two-year service agreement (and the associated bundle discounts) expired last month, and after dropping by one of their storefronts to see what deals were available, I wound up bumping up my internet package to gigabit speed, dropping the phone service (which I rarely used anyway, and only had because I was able to get a much bigger package discount with it than without it the last time I renewed my agreement), and adding the sports & entertainment package to get TCM back. More significantly, those changes cut my bill by almost $50 a month, which is how I was able to justify adding TCM. This time around the agreement term was only for one year instead of two, but the rep claimed the pricing would stay in place for a second year after the one-year agreement term.
So if you're on a service agreement nearing its expiration, it's worth checking to see if a similar deal's available in your area. I've gotten much better results in general from in-person discussions at their storefronts than trying to deal with their frequently-clueless CSRs over the phone.
-
On 10/2/2020 at 2:22 PM, ghost of miles said:
The unabridged UK edition--great book!
You may already be aware of this, but in the event you're not:
-
Library of Congress:
-
8 hours ago, Daniel A said:
I promise you that I am not trolling now, but I've got a question to all of you who prefer CDs to digital formats which are not based on plastic discs: do you prefer them only because of the packaging (booklets, liner notes) or also out of a feeling of "safety" for owning "physical" copies (or for any other reason)?
The reason for my question is the sometimes stated, sometimes implied, argument that CDs are a safer way to keep music than as files stored in another manner. But the fact is that hard drives, clouds and compact discs are only different ways of storing the same digital files. There are many safe ways to store digital data, and most often they are based on redundancy. CDs can get scratched, they can "rot", be stolen, lost or burn. A file storage solution based on multiple copies in different locations (as in local drive plus cloud) would probably be much safer.
Quite true, but I would hazard a guess that many people, even those who know better, are nowhere near as diligent as they should be when it comes to keeping backups of their digital data current. If you have a bunch of external USB drives sitting around that only get backed up occasionally, if ever, I would posit that the risk of one of those hard drives failing is far higher than that of CDs getting damaged, lost, stolen, etc. Hard drives have a finite lifespan that, all other things being equal, is much shorter than that of a CD.
There's also the issue of user error as related to specific software used to manage digital music libraries, leading to the loss of digital music files. As an example, I've seen more than a few complaints from pissed-off iTunes users who accidentally nuked their libraries when something in the feature set changed during one of Apple's upgrades and they weren't aware of the consequences. That's not going to happen with a CD.
-
7 hours ago, bresna said:
The color indicates the type of dye used. One type of dye is better than the other. It's been too long since I've studied this, but I am pretty sure that the clear-looking dye was used in "archival" CD-R's, which means that it has the longest shelf life.
That may well be. The link I posted earlier had something that appeared to contradict this, stating that the dye color was a cosmetic issue, but I'm somewhat skeptical since they didn't really provide anything to back that assertion up.
I think a bigger issue is that the shelf life claims are based on accelerated aging tests rather than real-world use. I've frequently seen claims of a 300-year shelf life for Mitsui Gold CD-Rs as opposed to a 100-year shelf life for garden-variety CD-Rs. Such essentially unprovable claims instill a false sense of security in users. What's downplayed, if it's mentioned at all, is that the dyes are photosensitive and if they are exposed to direct sunlight for any length of time, they will degrade to the point that the disc becomes unreadable. This is obviously not the case with pressed CDs.
-
On 7/29/2020 at 7:28 AM, felser said:
Honest question. If the CD-R is silver-bottomed, what is the difference to the consumer (me) compared to a CD. I understand the manufacturing difference, but will the sound quality or the life expectancy be less for the silver-bottomed CD-R than for the CD?
The color of the CD-R does not matter. The silver ones still use organic dyes that are modified when exposed to laser light. Pressed CDs use a glass master to physically stamp the data into the disc (sort of analogous to how a vinyl record is pressed). The dyes in a CD-R are inherently less stable and more prone to degradation over time than a pressed CD.
As for sound quality, I've never seen anything to indicate that there is a discernible difference between a CD-R and a pressed CD. That's possibly a heretical statement in some corners of the audiophile world, but so be it.
-
On 7/29/2020 at 6:02 AM, Big Beat Steve said:
Do you have a link to those discussions? Bear Family (of all labels) passing CD-Rs as REAL CDs, now that would be bad news.
There's this:
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/bear-family-and-cdrs.895471/
but that's not the one I'm thinking of. There is a 368-page catchall thread on Bear Family releases, and I think some of the CD-R discussion was buried in there, like on this page:
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/your-favourite-bear-family-releases.418974/page-49
I got these from Google, and you can see other relevant search results from the Hoffman site here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=bear+family+cd-r+site%3Astevehoffman.tv
but it may be better if you just do a search for "bear family cd-r" on the site itself. As I recall, some folks were pretty hot under the collar, and it probably didn't help matters that one of the forum members who does work for BF was conspicuously silent about the matter.
-
7 hours ago, jcam_44 said:
There is no cd-r that is silver like a glass master made cd. Put a real cd next to one you suspect and you’ll know instantly.
What about the Diamond Silver cd-rs?
From https://www.genesysdtp.com/faq.htm:
"Q: DiamondSilver cd-r's - what are they? Are they better quality than silver/silver cd-r's?
DiamondSilver cd-r's have a record surface which, before recording, is practically indistinguishable from the standard silver lacquer label surface. This is achieved by using a 'neutral' or 'colorless' dye, as compared to the light-green hue or other colors/variations of many other cd-r's. When a disc is fully burned, DiamondSilver cd-r's will look as close as possible to pressed cd's (already with content)."
There have also been some discussions over at the Hoffman board about cd-rs in certain Bear Family box sets that were visually indistinguishable from pressed cds, but I have to admit I never saw what I would consider to be conclusive proof that the discs in question were really cd-rs.
-
32 minutes ago, T.D. said:
I rarely check Mosaic listings on eBay. There are so many absurdly high offerings that the signal/noise ratio is too low. I don't generally have time to sort through pages upon pages of crap. I fail to understand the economics of laughably high offerings: does eBay no longer charge listing fees? I'm out of touch, but years ago when I sold there I had to pay listing fees.
eBay charges both insertion (listing) fees and final value fees. The final value fee is based on a percentage of the total sale price (including shipping but not including sales tax).
I've found occasional Mosaic bargains on eBay. I picked up the Illinois Jacquet box for $45 toward the end of last year. Not sure what the going rate for that one typically is but it seemed like a pretty good deal at the time. I suspect that at least part of the reason there wasn't much in the way of bidding competition is that the seller had it listed as "The Complete Illinois Jacket Sessions".
-
My wife is pretty open-minded when it comes to music, and likes jazz in general. In fact, back in the 1990s it was because of where she was employed at the time that I got to see a lot of great players like Sonny Rollins and Pharoah Sanders.
As far as other types of music, she's gone to see quite a few Hot Tuna shows with me, and a Roky Erickson show that was one of the loudest gigs I've ever heard, but she had approximately zero interest in seeing X, Black Flag, or Sleater-Kinney. If she had to name her favorite artist it would probably be Peter Gabriel. I've seen Gabriel several times, but she never has. The one and only time we've had a chance to see him since we've been together, I immediately procured tickets, and she came down with the flu on the day of the show and couldn't go.
-
On 7/6/2020 at 2:31 AM, Pim said:
Well, as some state here that USPS suck, in my opinion: PostNL sucks too! Till now almost every heavy delay I experiencedwas to blame on PostNL. The packages departured pretty early from country of origin but were kept endlessly in the Netherlands....
Not to speak of the ridiculous rices they dare to ask for shipping these days: 28 euros for a cd to the US! Insane!
Wow, that is an outrageous rate for a single CD. I was only charged 20 euros shipping for the book I purchased, and it probably weighed around a kilo. Does PostNL have different rates for printed matter?
-
On 7/3/2020 at 1:56 AM, bertrand said:
I know I have brought this up before, but this kind of fell off my radar and now is back on.
Amazon sells a few Region Free DVD players, they are pretty cheap. Do they really play any region or are there glitches? Are these legal? Do people care anymore?
Right now, I just need it for one DVD, Weather Report Live in Cologne, but there are others I had my eye on I did not buy because of this issue.
Or is it still possible to find a secret code online that unlock my Samsung DVD player? I can look up the model if needed.
You can look up your player model here and see if there is a region-free hack code for it:
https://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks
Many DVD players had hidden menus to enable region-switching. There usually aren't any glitches, you just hit the correct key sequence on the remote, and you're able to play a non-region-1 DVD just fine.
Blu-ray players are different, and require a hardware modification to be able to switch regions (usually it's nothing more than a jumper plugged into a specific connector on the mainboard, but this typically involves opening up the player to access the mainboard).
I haven't had a player that *wasn't* region-free/switchable since 1999. If I were just now getting into multiregion players, I'd buy a multiregion blu-ray player, but this is dependent on how many blu-rays you have or expect to have in the future.
Also, not all players are created equal, and some produce better picture quality than others, but it's gotten much harder to find high-quality universal players since Oppo exited the market.
-
On 7/2/2020 at 1:02 PM, Pim said:
I shipped a cd from the Netherlands to the U.S. and it arrived within 2 weeks. That was with DHL.
I ordered a book from a rare book dealer in Amsterdam in mid-May. It was shipped via PostNL and took a little over five weeks to reach Texas.
-
On 7/4/2020 at 8:04 AM, jazztrain said:
Does anyone remember the website that used to archive the notes (or was it just the discography?) of the Mosaic boxes? Does it still exist? I may try the Wayback machine. Just wondering if anyone knows. That would probably have the desired information.
Are you thinking of deus62's Mosaic discographies page? I think he used to be a member here, but he revamped his site some time ago and the discographies are no longer available on it. The old URL was http://deus62.com/download-mosaic-records-discographies/ , and if you go back to snapshots that are several years old on the Wayback Machine you can pull up the page, but the actual PDFs of the discographies don't seem to be archived there.
-
4 hours ago, Matthew said:
I think what is bothering me is the attitude that the various sports seem to be taking -- they're young and in great shape, they won't die from it. It bugs me, young people, in great condition, have died from the virus. It all strikes me as playing with other peoples lives for money.
Anyone who thinks the young are immune from serious effects of the virus should read this.
-
On 7/3/2020 at 2:48 PM, HutchFan said:
Yep, that's confused me before too. Real Gone Music = Quality. Real Gone = PD junk.
The cofounder of Real Gone Music, Gordon Anderson, was also the guy that started Collector's Choice Music.
-
-
On 6/26/2020 at 2:19 PM, sgcim said:
The advice on masks from various sources is pretty confusing. The surgical mask box says single use only. Other sources online say that you can wash them, but other sources say that once they're wet, they're useless. I bought a KN95 mask once, and the women pharmacists who sold it, all insisted that you can clean them with soap and water, yet the CDC says they retain viral particles, and should be thrown out after a single use.
Some say you should never spray them with disinfectants, and others say a brief spritz is sufficient. Here in NY, supply has finally improved, and I was able to buy 15 masks for $10, so I'm just going to throw them out after a single use, and forget about washing them.
We have a mixture of disposable, single-use masks and reusable cloth ones. We wash the cloth ones after every use and discard the single-use ones. I tend to prefer the cloth ones.
-
I haven't had any packages go missing lately (yet), but I am seeing lots of inaccurate or outdated tracking information more often than was previously the case. Had one package delivered a couple of weeks ago, but the tracking info is still indicating "awaiting delivery scan". OK, they forgot to scan it before dropping it off, but I have it, so no problem. Another one just showed up today, shipped via FedEx SmartPost, and both the FedEx and the USPS tracking numbers still show that they're awaiting receipt of the package after the label has been created. I'd just about given up on that one and was surprised to see it on the porch this morning.
The one that really had me pissed off was a UPS SurePost package I was expecting earlier this week. The day it was supposed to be here, the USPS tracking number showed they were awaiting receipt of the package from UPS, but when I checked the UPS tracking number, it showed that it had been delivered less than an hour previously, signed for by someone at "front desk". There's no front desk at my residence, so I called UPS. After a painful journey through their phone menu, I finally got a live person on the phone who said that yes, it appeared that the package had been delivered, but if I didn't have it, it must have been misrouted to the wrong address and I would have to file a claim to initiate an investigation. The next day, USPS delivered it, so the UPS "delivery" was clearly to the post office, something I'd suggested to the UPS rep, but she insisted that it was not.
All things considered, I suppose I'd rather have shitty tracking info and packages eventually showing up, as opposed to accurate tracking info and packages getting routed all over Hell's half acre or getting lost.
-
-
On 6/10/2020 at 0:39 AM, Brad said:
I’m not sure that’s what Hofstadter was referring to. Intellectualism is “accepts conflict as a central and enduring reality and understands human society as a form of equipoise based upon the continuing process of compromise. It shuns ultimate showdowns and looks upon the ideal of total partisan victory as unattainable, as merely another variety of threat to the kind of balance with which it is familiar. It is sensitive to nuances and sees things in degrees. It is essentially relativist and skeptical, but at the same time circumspect and humane.”
To Hofstadter “intellectualism is not at all the same thing as intelligence or devotion to a particular set of ideas. It is a distinctive habit of mind and thought that actually forbids the kind of complete self-assurance that we often associate with very smart or committed people.”
I read it many years ago. Not an easy read. See The Tea Party is timeless Richard Hofstadter's Anti-Intellectualism In American Life reviewed, from which the above were taken.
Thanks for the link, an interesting review. I think this quote from it sums up the point I was trying to make: "Hofstadter definitely does not see anti-intellectualism as the corrupting serpent in the American Eden. Instead, as he demonstrates, it has been deeply ingrained in the national culture from the very beginning."
I don't think his concept of intellectualism as nuanced and ever-conflicted is necessarily at odds with the concepts I was responding to, but like you, it's been many years since I read it, and you know the old saying about memory being the first thing to go...
-
11 hours ago, ejp626 said:
Populist political parties (mostly on the right but also the left) have engaged in anti-science and anti-expertise rhetoric for decades as part of a broader anti-elite discourse. The seeds have been present in the US basically from the very beginning but certainly more prominent since the mid-1970s.
Still just as relevant today as it was in 1963:
-
On 6/6/2020 at 3:51 PM, JSngry said:
And that Penske truck was UPS-level washed, right? The one that came to my house sure was.
That, I can't say, as I didn't get a good look at it (it was after dark and I only saw it from a distance). But now that I know what the deal is, I'm definitely on the lookout for more representatives of the Penske-yellow, crypto-UPS package delivery revolution.
COVID-19 III: No Politics For Thee
in Miscellaneous - Non-Political
Posted
To paraphrase something I saw elsewhere, wearing a mask isn't a political statement, it's an IQ test.