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951

General Software Discussion / Re: Firefox begins its mass rollout of ads on new tab tiles

« Last post by 40hz on December 01, 2014, 01:43 PM »

I posted this elsewhere. But I think it hits the nail on the head where this is all going:

952

Living Room / Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?

« Last post by 40hz on December 01, 2014, 01:20 PM »

I certainly have no problem with Schecters, or any number of other brands a lot of musicians turn their noses up at. Actually, the bass I bought when I decided to start playing again is an ultra cheap, but also workmanlike,  SX J-bass. Except for having the standard 1.5" jazz nut, it's exactly what I listed in my last post.

-Vurbal (December 01, 2014, 11:10 AM)

I'll agree with you 100% there. I personally happen to like inexpensive odd-brand guitars and basses. Especially imports from China.

I have expensive Fender, Gibson. Spector, and Godin basses. I've owned basses by Alembic , Yamaha, and almost every other major brand. And I also currently own inexpensive (or dirt cheap) Cort, Epiphone, Memphis, and Baltimore basses. They all play and sound great.

The biggest surprise was the Baltimore. I bought it on a whim for $49 from my local Guitar Center. I originally intended rout a 'swimming pool' in the middle and use it as a 'lab rat' for testing out various pickups and wiring schemes. But when I got it home I soon discovered the neck was so spot on - and the fit and finish so flawless - that I just dropped in a better (but equally inexpensive) set of pickups from Guitar Fetish, did some very minor setup work, and now use it regularly just the way it is. It has a better neck and fret job than some $1K+ USA Fender basses I've tried out recently. And it has a really cool (to my eyes) retro/Nippon look. I keep getting asked where I got it. Everybody who's tried it loves it.

Looks like this - and sorry for the rotated image. (What is it with these iPhone cameras?) :



You can't really tell from the picture, but it's candy apple red metallic. I understand they no longer make that insane pickguard and have since gone over to a standard P-Bass design. Too bad!

Truth is, with so much automated NC manufacturing these days the tolerances, even on a cheap solid body, are so good that the adage: Cheap bass + quality replacement pickups + Burns or Clarostat replacement pots = awesome instrument. I'd throw in a replacement bridge and/or tone cap (if needed) to that formula and "Bob's yer uncle."

I've never played an SX bass. But bassists I know and respect who have tried one have nothing but good things to say about them. Knowing me, I'll probably end up owning one sooner or later. I have it on good authority that the SX Ursa Jr. short scale series makes an excellent base for a picolo bass mod.

Yeah...knowing me...sooner or later....

------------------------------------------------

P.S. I didn't know USA Custom did 32" necks. I though they only did "standard" scale lengths. Good to know.

953

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Windows Email Server Options

« Last post by 40hz on December 01, 2014, 12:25 PM »

If you have serious security concerns, I'd probably forget about freebie solution for email.

-40hz (November 29, 2014, 02:52 PM)

My "security concerns" are why I'm self hosted.

-----------------------------------------

I'm from the less is more minimalist camp ...(I detest bells and whistles)... "Features" to me are just more holes to exploit.

-Stoic Joker (November 29, 2014, 03:29 PM)

I can't help but ask - if that's the case, why are you using IIs?

954

Living Room / Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?

« Last post by 40hz on December 01, 2014, 09:22 AM »

@Vurbal - that 32" scale is the tough part.

The only affordable bass I know that's currently available with that is the Schecter Prowler SGR. Unfortunately, no lefty model AFAIK. And Schecter is Schecter. You like em' or ya don't. I find their basses workmanlike and generally well made. But their tonal qualities are bland and colorless AFAIC. More discerning listeners than me may think (or imagine ) they sound otherwise.

If you're ever committed I'd suggest a nice afffordable lefty Squire bass fitted with a custom neck you could order from Warmouth. Warmouth necks can be fairly inexpensive if you don't go overboard with options that can quickly add up.

I just spec'ed a 32" unfinished maple left-handed P-Bass style (i.e. SSB Warhead) with GraphTech nut and rosewood fingerboard with cream dot top and side inlays. It came to $210, which is awfully reasonable for a less common scale neck. I'd probably order it without mounting holes however since I don't know if a Squire's bolts line up exactly with Fender's layout. At the very least I'd ask first. The "Made in China" models seem to line up just fine. But the "Hecho en México" models don't quite always. At least in my experience. YMMV.

Here's the spec

Specifications
Style: SSB Warhead
Construction: Short Scale Bass
Scale: 32"
Neck Wood:
$180.00 USD

    Shaft Wood: Maple
    Fingerboard Wood: Indian Rosewood

Stiffening Rods:
+ $0.00
Orientation: Left Handed
+ $0.00
Nut Width: 1 1/2"
+ $0.00
Back Shape: C-Shape
+ $0.00
Radius: Straight 10"
+ $0.00
# of Frets: 21
+ $0.00
Fret Size: 6105
+ $0.00
Tuner Ream: BML Lite (17mm)
+ $0.00
Inlays:
+ $0.00

    Inlays: Cream Face Dots
    Side Dots: White Side Dots

Pre-Cut Installed String Nut: GraphTech White TUSQ XL - Standard Nut
+ $30.00
Mounting Holes: Standard 4 Bolt
+ $0.00
Finish: No Finish
+ $0.00
Price: $210.00

955

Living Room / Re: Peer Review and the Scientific Process

« Last post by 40hz on December 01, 2014, 07:51 AM »

Did a quick skim of the bios of the staff and then read a half-dozen articles on American Thinker.

From the site:

About Us

American Thinker is a daily internet publication devoted to the thoughtful exploration of issues of importance to Americans. Contributors are accomplished in fields beyond journalism and animated to write for the general public out of concern for the complex and morally significant questions on the national agenda.

There is no limit to the topics appearing on American Thinker. National security in all its dimensions -- strategic, economic, diplomatic, and military -- is emphasized. The right to exist and the survival of the State of Israel are of great importance to us. Business, science, technology, medicine, management, and economics in their practical and ethical dimensions are also emphasized, as is the state of American culture.

I have a certain Uncle. He's a highly educated and well-intentioned individual. But somewhere along the line, he got fed up with many of things he was seeing in the news and became very angry. Angry to the point of where it affected his better nature and intellectual judgement and created a politico-moral lens (with a narrow angle and shallow depth of field) which he now views the world through. Beneath his visible calm, and love for quoting sources, the rage that's boiling within can clearly be seen. Another good man driven half-mad by the complexities and ambiguities of the world he lives in.

The writers at American Thinker remind me very much of him.

Maybe it's me. but do I detect a certain middle-American and strongly 'conservative' (dare I say closet far right?) agenda at work in American Thinker?  

956

Living Room / Re: My 1-year Facebook Death-a-versary!!!

« Last post by 40hz on December 01, 2014, 07:09 AM »

[/url])[/i]
I'm wondering if I should do a zombie post...

-Renegade (December 01, 2014, 06:37 AM)

Only if you miss being there.



 Sorry...couldn't resist >

957

Living Room / Re: New square monitor (27" 1920x1920)

« Last post by 40hz on November 30, 2014, 03:19 PM »

^Since they're pushing it for CAD and similar "pro" use cases I'm guessing it will tip the scales at well over a grand when it finally hits the streets. There's enough 'hip factor' here that they'll probably jack prices up for the early adopters and "gottahavit" crowd for the first three to six months too.

958

Living Room / Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?

« Last post by 40hz on November 30, 2014, 11:18 AM »

^You might also want to check out Precision Guitar Kits. They sell finished and unfinished necks, bodies, and complete kits. (No bass components unfortunately) Their quality is superb. Their neck routes are the most precise I've ever seen. And they're very competitively priced.

They also offer single-piece (as in not laminated) T & S style bodies in alder or swamp ash along with some other tonewood choices depending on the body style. Those run at a premium of about $100 over a two-piece body in the same wood. But if you're looking to create something you simply can't get elsewhere, these are the folks you want to do business with. AFAIK, nobody else is offering single piece Fender type bodies but them. They also have Gibson-style bodies - including carved top models. (That double cutaway LP Junior is very tempting!)

Truth is, you won't really save any money scratch building your own from new parts any more. Even if you value your time at two bucks an hour. But you will be able to build something unique that was done your way.

And for some of us, the journey is as much a reward as the arrival.

------------------------------------

Note: IMO Fender's Squire Classic Vibe series sets the absolute standard for just how great a guitar you can buy for a bargain price . For less than half the price of the parts you would need, Squire will sell you a finished instrument that you can build a musical career around. Yes, they're that good!

959

Developer's Corner / Re: Announcing .NET 2015 - .NET as Open Source, .NET on Mac and Linux

« Last post by 40hz on November 30, 2014, 07:12 AM »

960

Developer's Corner / Re: Visualization of Algorithms

« Last post by 40hz on November 29, 2014, 07:01 PM »

+1! That would make a great screensaver when you think about it. Be really cool to have it cycle through all the different algorithms.

961

General Software Discussion / Re: Resources for learning Windows PowerShell

« Last post by 40hz on November 29, 2014, 06:56 PM »

And certainly less complex or expensive than going with MS Systems Center.

-40hz (November 29, 2014, 01:09 PM)

I'd rather deploy software manually on 5.25" floppies after swimming through leech-infested piranha tanks than use System Center.

Well, almost.  

-x16wda (November 29, 2014, 06:42 PM)

Hear ya.   It is a lot to get your head around. And it always struck me as being fussier and more complex than it needed to be. But that could just be ignorance on my part. I've done little more than read a few books and play with it a bit. I wouldn't even pretend to be up on it's intricacies. I know enough to know I'd to sub it out if I ever got called on to implement or maintain it.

Fortunately, my work is primarily with clients that are far too small to justify implementing MSC. And those few that are big enough to benefit already have the expertise in-house to handle it. It's a full time job from what I've seen.

 

962

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Windows Email Server Options

« Last post by 40hz on November 29, 2014, 06:45 PM »

...It's also a 4 day holiday weekend - which has been total shit, because -  I've got some kind of flu, and I'm feeling a bit old and tired of having to keep up with all of this shit.

-Stoic Joker (November 29, 2014, 03:29 PM)

If it's any comfort, I feel that way about it most days. Even without the flu.

Feel better.

963

Living Room / Re: Movies or films you've seen lately

« Last post by 40hz on November 29, 2014, 06:36 PM »

Out of Mind: The Stories of H.P. Lovecraft.

A nicely done hour long short that you may first think is going to be a documentary. Can that really be actual footage of an old interview with H.P. shot back in the 20s??? (Nope! But you'd sure think it might be for a half second or two. )



But Out of Mind soon morphs into a very nicely done "dream within a dream" short story.

Christopher Heyerdahl is absolutely brilliant as Lovecraft. He's got the look and hits all the right notes. Even gets the old (and now mostly extinct) Rhode Island accent spot on.

   

Out of Mind casts an entertaining eye on the work of American writer H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), one of the early 20th century's masters of gothic-horror literature. The film offers an encounter with Lovecraft and enters into his world. Engaging in a kind of game around the writer, the film playfully winks at some of the themes characteristic of his work: the occult, cursed books, monstrous creatures. Out of Mind draws its inspiration from Lovecraft's personal correspondence and many of his stories, carrying the viewer through a labyrinth "beyond the wall of sleep."

Includes some marvellous and utterly cheesy special effects! No true Lovecraft fan could ever ask for more than that. Non-fans will probably miss a lot since this one is definitely geared for Lovecraft's many admirers. If you're one of them, highly recommended.

964

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Windows Email Server Options

« Last post by 40hz on November 29, 2014, 02:52 PM »

Set one up as a temporary for an underfunded NP about 3 years back. It worked for them with about 20 users for half a year. Can't really say more about it than that. Ideal? Hardly. But it got the job done.

They eventually shifted over to a hosted service once they got better funding. Which made sense. They really couldn't afford IT support on their budget.

If you have serious security concerns, I'd probably forget about freebie solution for email.

Btw...What's wrong with phpMyAdmin?

965

General Software Discussion / Re: Looking for Windows Email Server Options

« Last post by 40hz on November 29, 2014, 01:42 PM »

Take a look at hMailServer. It's about as easy as it gets. And it can even be run on a vanilla workstation machine. No server OS required. Got an old Win7 box with decent RAM just sitting around?

Never saw it running as a virtual. But I don't see why it wouldn't work.

ADD: This guy seems to have gotten it working. He included the config details.

 

966

General Software Discussion / Re: Resources for learning Windows PowerShell

« Last post by 40hz on November 29, 2014, 01:09 PM »

Chocolatey is pretty interesting. I'm working with a medium-sized client to see if it can be used to handle all PC software installations and updates company-wide using the private feed feature and a local repository for security/management purposes.

Right now it looks very promising in testing. And certainly less complex or expensive than going with MS Systems Center.

967

Living Room / Re: NaNoWriMo ... the gruelling writing event for 2014

« Last post by 40hz on November 29, 2014, 12:14 PM »

This was a post about finishing your writing and about NaNoWriMo in particular... not about the merits or not of the exercise.  A get into gear... like the ending of a grueling marathon where you have to dig deep and finish.

-wraith808 (November 29, 2014, 10:34 AM)

Appreciated, even though that sort of exercise doesn't work for me.

968

Living Room / Re: NaNoWriMo ... the gruelling writing event for 2014

« Last post by 40hz on November 29, 2014, 12:09 PM »

Someone (from an intro I have lost) said that Balzac damaged his writing skill by essentially being forced by life to write too fast

-TaoPhoenix (November 28, 2014, 10:05 PM)

How could anyone who was not a contemporary and close personal friend of Balzac possibly know that to be true? Seriously.

I drives me crazy when biographers or 'intro' writers present their personal opinions or conclusions about about something in an author's life as an established fact. Perhaps it makes for a quotable line or two in a review. But it usually has scant basis in fact.

969

Living Room / Re: Happy Thanksgiving to DonationCoder folks

« Last post by 40hz on November 28, 2014, 09:07 PM »

Here's a nicer story for Thanksgiving.

970

Living Room / Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?

« Last post by 40hz on November 28, 2014, 08:12 PM »

@40hz: I'm gonna have to add that to my schematic collection.  I've got a strat that I did the Brian May treatment to, and I was REALLY surprised at the variety of tone.  Unfortunately, I used metal toggle switches - the kind that stick up about an inch?  Yeah...knuckle barking every time I get too excited.

So - I've bought the hardware to re-do it with low-profile black switches instead...but I have no idea when I'll get around to redoing it..

-theGleep (November 28, 2014, 06:00 PM)

Too bad you already bought everything. Guitar Fetish has BM wiring kits for the Strat that includes a precut pickguard for <$40. (Cutting rectangular holes in a pickguard for slideswitches can be a real PITA unless you have a better tool collection than I do.) I don't know anybody just selling the pickguard.

971

Living Room / Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?

« Last post by 40hz on November 28, 2014, 02:12 PM »

@tjbray/theGleep - One last bit on building guitars...

A gent by the name of Roger Placer built a guitar for himself and did up and demoed a wiring scheme for two humbuckers that basically covers every useful switching combo possible with a pair of split-coil humpups. Well worth a listen.

You can get a copy of the schematic here.

If I were to do that. I'd probably also install a varitone (or capacitor selector) circuit since I always prefer some form of tone control be installed on an instrument. You can build one or buy one. However, varitones are pretty simple devices - and building your own gives you complete control over which capacitor values and types you want to use. As you probably know, tone cap selection is a fetish that borders on religious mania with some guitarists.

Ok, that's it from me for now,

972

Living Room / Re: Do we have any musical people on DC?

« Last post by 40hz on November 28, 2014, 11:04 AM »

Hats off to 40Hz as well, I can tell he has been helping pass information on to forum users for quite some time. Maybe in time mine will be laid out and as clear as his!

-tjbray (November 26, 2014, 04:32 PM)

Thank you even though long time readers of my blather may disagree with you about how clear I am when posting. I tend to run on . And I'm not always organized.

973

Living Room / Re: Thoughts on "Piracy".

« Last post by 40hz on November 28, 2014, 08:16 AM »

What would you suggest to reform the existing intellectual creativity compensation regime, if you think we have to?

-eleman (November 28, 2014, 07:40 AM)

We do - and I'm not at all sure how to do it.

It will probably first require a major shift in attitude on the part of the creators and consumers. That and some management of expectations by both sides before anything lasting gets accomplished on that front. Right now both sides feel hurt and angry and are constantly doubling down and getting more and more ridiculous with their claims and arguments.

Which is why the vultures are having such a field day. Any time a buyer and a seller aren't being civil and reasonable, it's only a matter of time before a middle-man shows up, inserts him or herself in the process, and fleeces them both bare.

"So it goes..."

974

Living Room / Re: Happy Thanksgiving to DonationCoder folks

« Last post by 40hz on November 28, 2014, 07:36 AM »

I wish, me and my Mrs just took a walk down the Sea Front and then came back through town and half the shops have people queuing up outside them for Black Friday Sales...Last I checked, we live in England...why the HELL do we have this crap now? 

-Stephen66515 (November 27, 2014, 06:05 PM)

Because the videos posted online afterwards are (un)funny!

-Renegade (November 27, 2014, 07:01 PM)

Isn't this the day that Black Friday Death Counter website goes online? (I fail to remember the link) o.O

Scares me if I am honest.

-Stephen66515 (November 27, 2014, 07:43 PM)

It's here.

975

Living Room / Re: Thoughts on "Piracy".

« Last post by 40hz on November 28, 2014, 07:25 AM »

I'd not act against the will of an ordinary natural person who thinks he/she is better off charging for the software. I'd pay for it, or not use it.

-eleman (November 28, 2014, 06:48 AM)

An interesting but very real distinction. It could be considered "situational ethics" by some. But since all ethics are (of necessity) situational, calling them 'situational' is not a valid criticism. It points to a higher level of ethical distinction. Something too many people who are in love with a "zero tolerance solution" fail to consider. Thank you for not being one of those.

The legal persons with the clout (and the will) to shape the laws through lobbying, regulatory capture etc. are fair game to screw however. Because they screw me anytime they get the chance to do so.

-eleman (November 28, 2014, 06:48 AM)

So your quarrel is with the regulatory environment and the 'players' rather than the content creators themselves? Ok. I got it now.

That's also a very humanizing distinction and clarification.

Question: How do you break the current framework without sacrificing the creators in the process? The interest groups and corps are the last to get hurt in this sort of battle. The people that make the product are the first to get put on the block or thrown to the wolves. This isn't meant as a comeback. I really am curious how that might be accomplished with minimal casualties to the creatives.

But in practice, (nowadays) I rarely bother to pirate their products as well, for I have free alternatives. Why bother cracking ms office, when libre would do?

-eleman (November 28, 2014, 06:48 AM)

I hear you. I do the same, along with providing financial support to those projects whenever possible. (Oddly enough, I do practice what I preach. Go figure.)