shinyhappyrainbows

Sweet M5 luxury! Well, it's the Macbook Air M5 base model so, in terms of SSD, it's got a quarter of the storage of my "ancient" M1, but it feels so beuatiful to rest my palms on either side of the trackpad. It feels like a more textured surface than the M1 Air. I like this very much. Haven't had a chance yet to test the M5's speed, hoping that the latest nightly build of OpenSCAD will demonstrate that soon, on some convoluted CAD project. It feels snappy in Brave Browser, though. More deatils as they come to hand, as they say in the newsrooms.

Man! I so want to build one of these! A tube distortion pedal that runs of 9v. The legendary Matsumin Overdrive, origins are quite sketchy, but commonly reproduced as the DIY "Valvecaster." I guess Matsumin was probably either a Japanese engineer in a small amplifier and and electric guitar factory, or a dedicated hobbyist. The origins are probably the 1960s. A software simulation of the Matsumin Valvecaster overdrive pedal. I know, you're like, "Wait! What?! That's running on 9v!!! A tube circuit?" Well, yes it is 9v, and no, it's not a bug in my iCircuit instance. It's called "starvation mode" amplification. I can't find much about the concept of starvation mode online, other than this circuit in its many, many variations, but my best guess is it's something to do with that thing that happens with some tube amps where, when you turn them off, the volume drops as the power supply filter capacitors discharge, then briefly "bo...

This article on the ABC about one particular shady promotoer promising payment, then running off with the money, misses one key point. This the the norm in the arts. Society values artists so low that no government ever does a thing to protect them. The promise of payment is often not even contingent on having a certain number of camp followers, it's just a stated fee, then when the gig's done, the venue has no idea you were expecting payment and the promoter evades everybody who played the gig. the industry is rife with "to play is the privilege", "pay to play" and just plain, simple lies and rip-offs like this Aussie Gigs scam. And these kinds of ripoffs are scams, pure and simple. There's a "joke" that tells of a band who the promoter expects to play for free because the venue can't afford the fee. The band's rep turns down the gig (that's the punchline, right there, we're too eager, we musos. Lesson 1: Learn to turn down ...

If you follow this blog at all, there's a chance you know I survived a "Widowmaker", a severe blockage of the left anterior descending, main cardiac artery. I blacked out in prep for "cath lab" before any venipuncture was performed and woke up looking at a giant TV screen with my ticker front and center in grainy B&W, beating away. In the words of Maxwell Smart, "Missed me by that much." Recovery has been a slog through 37% ejection fraction, overmedication for blood pressure, a different cardiologist at Victorian Heart Hospital every visit, all too overworked to have read that I was already on an antihypertensive, then 2 then 3 then 4... Then, finally, I gave up on Monash Medical and went to a private cardiologist, "Stop this one, this one and this one," and I haven't felt stronger in such a long time! Since just before Christmas, I've been getting more kliks in almost every ride, excepting the days I felt I needed to just stre...

THIS! ^

I'm building up a restomod 90s mountain bike, a 1995 Giant Sedona "Full Butted" frame I found on hard rubbish a decade ago. Bit of a trend at the moment, I know, but I have connections to that era and brand. My fifth adult bike was a 1993 Giant Iguana that lasted 20 years and would probably have lasted 20 years more had the quill stem not rusted itself solid inside the steerer, making it impossible to recondition without ruining the paint. The problem required the stem be "sweated" with a gas torch, which would have likely ruined the fork as well as the paint. So it got put on hard rubbish and was gone in minutes. It went to a home that valued it, I hope. "Iggy" was metallic forest green with silver lettering, an 18" (46cm) framed, chromoly 26er and it rode like I was sitting on feathers. "Sedon", the current project is a 16" (40cm) butted chromoly frame with 1 1/8 inch steerer compatibility, it was stock with the A-Head system, the...