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Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,531
7,863

prophet6

Chimp
Mar 25, 2002
96
0
North Easton, MA
I dunno, Toshi... it felt like it had the sort of trademark punk-esq feel that Gibson is known for.
Consider:
•Fanatical obsession to details about phisical things (think about the Rickson, and pretty much anything that the main character owns...)
•Decaying/Autonomous social setting (not strickly true, but I'd argue that the circles in which Cayce operates belong to this catagory
•Development of specific slang

That's just my feeling. I guess I'd call it a present day cyberpunk novel without the cyber. Sort of.
I've read damn near all of his stuff, and outside of Neuromancer, I feel this may be is strongest effort yet.


p6
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,531
7,863
i didn't get that feeling from it. it sounded like he was pretty much describing my life if only i had fashion consciousness. and i certainly haven't heard anyone on the street muttering "he took a duck to the face at 250 knots". what slang other than that are you talking about? cordas?

it just had a very glossy yet bland feel that could have been accomplished by any number of writers imo. i'll admit that the buzz rickson bit was good but it was not matched by the rest of the novel.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,531
7,863
my sony mdr-v6's headphone jack broke a while back. indeed this mishap is what led me to get the senns now sitting on my desk. dissatisfied with the consumer electronics mantra that broken things should be replaced rather than repaired, i decided to take matters into my own hands and try to fix the headphones.

simply soldering on a new jack would have been the easiest solution. unfortunately, sony uses a weird kind of wire, extremely thin and covered with a lacquer that must be tediously scraped off or removed chemically before soldering is possible. not wanting to go through that trouble, or soldering 0.3 mm wire or whatever it is, i bought some giant canare wire and went to work with the ol' soldering iron. (actually the new soldering iron. i have no idea where my old one from middle school days is.)

the net result is that i now have a working set of v6s again, with a lovely short cord suitable for use with the ipod. 3 meter cords are great for home or studio use but not when you have your ipod in your jacket pocket...





gallery here

on the downside i sure breathed a lot of fumes. modern solder is lead-free, no? :dead:
 

prophet6

Chimp
Mar 25, 2002
96
0
North Easton, MA
yeah, I dunno. I enjoyed the book.

I'm reading "Life of Pi" right now, and it feels slow to start... we'll see, I suppose.

I like the headphone modification... I've got an old set of Koss AApro's that need a similar treatment, but I've been really lazy. My new set of AT's have a better sound and weigh, oh, four pounds less, but the Koss have sonic isolation like you read about. Nice when it's noisey around.


p6
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,531
7,863
life of pi was kind of a slow read. it was worth it in the end. again, one of those "people" books. i can only read so many in a row :D

yeah, the fact that the v6s are closed (vs. the notoriously open senns i have, hd 600) are a huge reason in why i spent this much time reviving them. when on the bus other people probably aren't annoyed by the sound leaking out of my headphones but i'd rather not have them hear what i'm listening to at all. that way they can imagine i'm listening to ashlee simpson when i really have mahler on. or vice versa. :eek:
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,531
7,863
WTGPhoben said:
It's like a Bentley continental-T without the class.
:D good characterization. heh. i'll save the "class" for when i get a ferrari :oink:
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,531
7,863
Barbaton said:
heh. toshi, i just had this total mental image of your 300C with bigass mud tires and a roof rack with your Canfield on it.
ew, i'm not that tasteless! haha. anyway, i'm idly going to try to get my parents to buy that 300C SRT for themselves - no new cars for me for at least 5 years! :D - but i think they want/think they need a suv. boohoo.
 

prophet6

Chimp
Mar 25, 2002
96
0
North Easton, MA
That car (the 300C) is a pig. 4100 lbs? That's 1000 too much. Weight might be ok for going fast in a straight line, but if you want to toss it from corner to corner, you'll need something a bit less.... heavy.

for the same cash, grab a 2001/2 audi s4, and grab some O.CT kit for it. Then you've got 350-400 bhp, and 400-420 ft/lb of tugg... plus it weighs closer to 3600 pounds, and you've got all wheel drive.

My measure of a car is the following:
-pounds per horsepower
-horsepower per liter

lower for the first, higher for the second.



p6
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,531
7,863
ah, but 400 bhp/400 ft-lb of torque from a turbo v6 is not the same as the same figures from a normally aspirated v8. i do agree about the weight being unnecessarily high, although that will hopefully pay off in more solidity/less plastic junk falling off.
 

Barbaton

Turbo Monkey
May 11, 2002
1,477
0
suburban hell
Toshi said:
ah, but 400 bhp/400 ft-lb of torque from a turbo v6 is not the same as the same figures from a normally aspirated v8. i do agree about the weight being unnecessarily high, although that will hopefully pay off in more solidity/less plastic junk falling off.
it's an american car, of course all the plastic junk's gonna fall off. :)
 

prophet6

Chimp
Mar 25, 2002
96
0
North Easton, MA
I'm not sure how you figure that turbo figures don't compare to a v8... I think that if you looked at a torque curve for each car you'd be suprised.

besides, honda routinely pulls 100-110 bhp per liter out of normally asperated engines... that means the hemi *should* be putting out 610+ bhb.

p6
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,531
7,863
yeah, but those honda engines (like in the s2000) are very peaky. while i'd find that fun, my parents, especially with a slushbox, wouldn't necessarily appreciate it.
 

prophet6

Chimp
Mar 25, 2002
96
0
North Easton, MA
It's funny, but there happens to be a O.CT S4 sitting in my driveway right now... not mine, but my dad's.

Torque is a nearly dead flat line, and hits 400ft/lb at 2200 rpm. Very drivable.



p6.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,531
7,863
well, it doesn't SOUND like a v8. take that. :D

book review of the day: i forgot to bring "shogun" to class today so had to read "demon in the freezer" instead. (it was in my bag so as to prompt me to return it.)

"demon ..." must be the worst written book i ever have read. the subject matter is interesting but the author, richard preston, writes like a third grader. non sequiturs abounded, and it was a rare sentence that had a comma, or more than one clause. in this regard it was the literary opposite of "gravity's rainbow".
 

prophet6

Chimp
Mar 25, 2002
96
0
North Easton, MA
my vote for worst written book ever is "the imortal class" by Travis Hugh Culley. Pompus, bratty, and overall lame, it has to be one of the most tiresome books to plod through. ugh.


p6


and no, it doesn't sound like a v8... but I like the whine of turbos.
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,531
7,863
inspired in part by ridemonkey's addition of it, and part by my new (to me) log analysis software that lets me see what urls are coming up with 404 errors among other things, i've added a favorites icon to my site:



it's a resized (duh) version of something i made for the "friends" section of my sophomore year website. it was cribbed/photoshopped based on the aol logo and a hat from ballericons.com, which seems to have degenerated over the years.
 

Gleeke

Chimp
Jan 14, 2005
31
0
Rhode Island, USA
prophet6 said:
my vote for worst written book ever is "the imortal class" by Travis Hugh Culley. Pompus, bratty, and overall lame, it has to be one of the most tiresome books to plod through. ugh.


p6


and no, it doesn't sound like a v8... but I like the whine of turbos.
For such a small book it took forever to get through.

300C is a beast. My mother drives one and I must say it's got sooo much power. Step on the gas at 80 and you're at 100mph in a heart beat. I'd like to try the Magnum Wagon. Blk on Blk on Blk on Blk on Blk (Black paint, interior, rims, tires and windows.)

My wifes Saab has a turbo, my mother's got a V8 and me I'd like a twinturboV8!
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,531
7,863
so my site is down at the moment. network reconfiguration by a 3rd party while i am 400 miles away (ok, 388, fine) is to blame, and there's nothing i can do about it. :dead:

in the meantime i offer this photo (and this gallery) as penance:

 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,531
7,863
in honor of the wagging nose pig avatars in vogue in the lounge i bust out imageready and made clarus' tail wag. :D
 

Barbaton

Turbo Monkey
May 11, 2002
1,477
0
suburban hell
Toshi said:
in honor of the wagging nose pig avatars in vogue in the lounge i bust out imageready and made clarus' tail wag. :D
don't you have something medischooly you need to do. ;-)


in other news, as promised i got the pics from the ski trip in NM. I'll put them up as soon as I'm back from this conference...
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,531
7,863
i have tests every two weeks. just had one on monday. thus i'm in extreeeeem coasting mode now
 

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,531
7,863
finished "the golden ratio" by mario livio today. was ok, especially if you like art and recreational mathematics. decently well written, not greatly coherent as a book.