Hey, tastewar! Here’s proof that I was playing around with Microsoft Cluster Service — on Windows 2003! — years before we had to make it work. Not that the alleged customer demand for supporting the feature was ever really there.
Category: Tech
Swiping the Sunday Funnies
The updated Washington Post application adds a nifty feature to its comics page. You can swipe back to see the previous six days of strips, as I demonstrate on my Kindle Fire HD 10 tablet.
With the end of my Boston Globe home delivery subscription — along with digital access — just two days away, I will be relying more on the tablet for news. In addition to the Post, I have started subscribing to the Kindle edition of The New York Times. For $20/month there are no ads and, thankfully, no comments. I can read it on the HD 10, but I’m finding the format easier to navigate with the Kindle Paperwhite.
More Gear Spotting
Ever see The Big Bang Theory S9:E19? That’s the episode with Sheldon’s Fortress of Shame.
https://youtu.be/uGAuGzvv6xM?t=98
There are three items in there that I have and still use.
The Canon Pixma isn’t needed for much printing anymore, but it continues to be very active as my scanner. The Panasonic DVD player does duty as my single-disc CD player in the living room, to complement my Sony 300-disc CD changer.
Even the Compaq Presario PC, purchased on 10/25/2001, the day Windows XP was released, has an occasional use. Someone recently handed me a 3.5″ diskette and said they need the files on it transferred to a USB stick.
Gear Spotting
Did I ever point out the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) LA120 dot-matrix keyboard printers in Superman: The Movie? No? Well, they’re in there. If it was a sponsored product placement, the target market was quite narrow.
I don’t have Apple TV+, so I’m not watching Severance. On Thursday, Colbert had praise for the series.
Colbert thinks so highly of Severance that he has made this parody video. I may not be familiar with the series, but I recognize the non-Apple hardware in it.
That sure looks like John Turturro is sitting at a Data General (DG) Dasher D2 terminal. It’s same vintage as the DEC LA-120.
The headphones are Sennheiser HD 414’s from 50 years ago. They were very light and had clear sound, but you had to hold them tightly against your ears to hear any bass.
The turntable that Colbert plays in the video is a recent model. The Pro-Ject Classic EVO.
Speaking of DEC and DG, they were given something of a nod in the December, 1983 issue of Playboy. I was classmates with the Playmate of the Month’s big sister Susan, who was exquisitely beautiful.
Also making an appearance in that issue were Massachusetts-made Allison Three and Nine loudspeakers. By the end of ’83 I had owned my Three’s for four years. The Pioneer LD-1100 LaserDisc player was the model up from my LD-660.
Better Call Dell
Watching Monday’s penultimate episode of Better Call Saul, I thought, “Hey… is that a Dell Ultrasharp 1708FP?”
“It doesn’t look big enough to be a 1908FP…”
“… well, maybe it does. Either way.”
I have two Ultrasharp 1708FP monitors.
The timeline of the TV series places that scene circa 2010, so the attention to period detail is spot-on. A noteworthy point is that back then not all computer monitors were suitable for medical imaging use. The 1708FP was, and my dentist’s office has one in every exam room.
When the Ultrasharp 1708FP was being discontinued, I bought mine in a 2-for-1 deal from Dell Direct. As long as these things continue to be reliable and they stay bright enough, I’ll keep using them.
Sorry for the spoiler, but I have to say that Rhea Seehorn outdid herself yet again. Kim Wexler leaving her old life behind was exactly the point, and her portrayal in the “Waterworks” episode is a completely different person than the character everybody knows. If Rhea doesn’t win the Emmy this year, then it will truly be a case of voter fraud.
Euphonic Inaccuracy
MoFi Records claimed its expensive reissues were purely analog reproductions. It had been deceiving its customer base for years.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/08/05/mofi-records-analog-digital-scandal
All of my purchases from Music Direct, the parent company of MoFi, have been excellent. The one time I required customer service it was also excellent. But false advertising is bad, and I assume there will be repercussions.
The deception regarding MoFi’s “all analog” releases aside, this is a non-issue for me. I have assumed for years that new vinyl releases are cut from digital masters. Why wouldn’t they be?
MoFi has been using DSD source material, which is as good as it gets digitally. Assuming it isn’t something that was simply scaled up to meet the specifications of the format, because the original analog master tape was lost in the infamous Universal Studios fire. If there’s a scandal to be found in music mastering, that’s where to look.
The “problem” with lossless digital audio sources is also their strength — there is precious little difference between players in the way they sound. You press or click Play and that’s it. Playing records is, well, more fun!
One of the things that makes records so attractive, beyond their physical appeal, is that changes in the turntable, tonearm, cartridge, and pre-amp can have significant audible differences. As with speakers and headphones, finding the sonic characteristics of a turntable setup that best suit your taste is a big part of the enjoyment.
So while I’m not pleased that MoFi’s customers were deceived, I don’t see the company’s use of digital masters as invalidating their commitment to quality. Perhaps today I’ll play my 1979 all-analog LP of Mobile Fidelity’s Original Master Recording of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.
https://www.discogs.com/release/416621-Pink-Floyd-The-Dark-Side-Of-The-Moon