Lyander

"8-10 minutes to finish starting up" Good grief, I didn't think even Windows could be that slow.

Haha, thermals haven't been kind to the old friend and I'm pretty sure doing a proper reinstall of Windows (and maybe a battery swap plus a move to a 2.5 SSD) will do wonders for it, but with the new job I honestly can't afford much downtime. Amusingly I'll still be on the laptop for work since I don't have a proper webcam so I'll be suffering still.

And yup, my interest in computers is nascent but I do remember what they were like in the early aughts. Even this relatively cruddy stock cooler from AMD (lowest tier, about two rungs below yours) is significantly more tolerable.

The ubersticky thermal paste is less pleasant though. Argh.

What?! No one called One-Call to do the locates? Hang in there. Hopefully water will return sooner than expected.

@Senorx12562 Might have been cuz from what we could tell it was a damned klutzy job.

@luckybaer got off easy, water returned a just few hours back, albeit still kinda icky-scummy. Might not be entirely sealed still so it's good luck we already buy gallons of water jugs to drink out of.

Dear eco warriors: said jugs are reused.

Wait.. sorry I got distracted.. you broke what working your pole?

Take a multimeter and measure the pot, for each channel you'll have three pins. Not sure about the config but between two of them you'll have the same high value regardless of position 100K maybe.
Then between the first and the other pin it should vary according to volume position, if at min it's not 0 then you have a problem. Compare with other channel. If it's a balanced pot you have 4 channels.

This couldn’t possibly go poorly!

Thanks @m17xr2b! Will be doing that when I get some free time to take the thing apart. Not been able to confirm what the actual issue is yet but this is handy.

And definitely so, @DigMe. Not tryna jinx myself or anything silly like that.

Precisely what I thought. Guess that means I'm going all in on Team Red for this build after all.

Is P50 = 1USD still a decent rule of thumb for a quick exchange rate calc? I remember when it was P25 = 1USD...

Yup, it's close enough that I just multiply/divide by 50. Don't think I existed when the rate was that low but hah, I'd be in a position to try a fair bit more gear if that were still the case :P

You might benefit from a book similar to this one (which I have in my library): https://www.amazon.com/New-Stereo-Soundbook-Alton-Everest-dp-0830639039/dp/0830639039/

Interesting, never heard of "stereo M/S"
https://www.uaudio.com/blog/mid-side-mic-recording/

Looks a treat, appreciate the recommendation! The frustrating thing is I remember reading up on all this when I was looking into measurement mics about a year or so ago but it's all fallen out the other ear haha. Might look for a proper reference book in the future too.

Two thumbs up for Poland.

By-the-numbers American slashers, history, and booze. Damn right.

@Lyander add to the list fantastic passive amps from Khozmo. :-)

I wondered if a breakup was going to happen since they had not released anything in a while...

Yeah, it wasn't until I someone else pointed out it'd been ages since RAM came out that this started seeming matter-of-course. Makes a guy wonder whether they've tried to build new stuff and just failed to meet expectations.

Good discussion on /. about this yesterday.

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/21/02/19/2221218/nvidia-limits-rtx-3060-crypto-speeds-as-it-introduces-mining-cards

Isn't it in part to allow people who actually want graphics cards to game to get some? Miners seem to be a bigger problem than scalpers as far as supply goes.

Whoops sorry, somehow missed these. Can't say for sure it's a good way to combat the GPU scarcity since as bad as miners are making things the overall market just seems fucked.

Also, say what you will but the wastefulness of this (vis a vis their lack of secondhand utility) really does rub me the wrong way.

LMAO, I actually nearly spilled fresh (instant) coffee on the keyboard with that Sanderson remark, @Imraan. There's at least ONE fantasy author's work I like that isn't in short supply (can't wait for Stormlight book XLII).

But yeah, I'm more in line with everyone else and I haven't even been waiting as long. Much as I had fun reading and re-reading "Harry Potter Meets Sex Faeries" (as a friend so eloquently described it), DoS will have to be something epochal to warrant this wait.

After I spent 20 years of my life reading the wheel of time, I vowed to never read a fantasy series till it’s done.

EDIT: unneeded. Taking a flathead screwdriver to the USB port on the mic to tighten the contact was apparently enough to increase the gain to usable levels.

...Got me thinking, hey the Grateful Dead sang something about a flat head screw driver, but on investigation, it turned out to be shiny black steel jack-hammer.

I guess anybody could make that mistake.

‘Nuff said!

When you drunk-confess being the Super Bowl streaker but then have second thoughts after.

@DigMe DAMMIT I SAID TO KEEP THAT QUIET :((

Stupidity is a great danger to our future...

@Deep Funk I think Game Stop is feeling this about now.

Well, frustrating the young generation and forcing the system (of various economies) on them leads to, among others: finding ways to break the system; finding ways to manipulate the system and profiting of its weaknesses because Wall Street says "greed is good." Every civilisation creates its own monsters...

Medical practice is well paid in the end, right? And you are doing your bit to help save the world.

One nice perk about this job is that the bar seems subterranean almost. Now I'm hardly a proficient communicator on the forum since I don't always proofread before posting (sorry), but holy light above the premade modules and lesson plans (another perk, that)? Yeah they need heavy edits.

Who knows, maybe I can negotiate a bonus for correcting all the typos and horrendous Engrish on their site and educational materials. Seems like that'd be SIGNIFICANTLY more difficult than just teaching though.

I might cop the Klipsch 600 since it drops to $300 USD and the main use is prob kids' movies.

They're not hard on the eyes either, I'd say. Looking forward to quick impressions if you ever get em, but yeah unless you need the massive bandwidth of eARC might be best to forego soundbars entirely, no?

Main reason I was looking into them was because it was for the parents mainly and they're not amendable to BIG speakers, hah.

Speakers look pretty horrible IMO in general. We want to keep our living space de-electronicsed if we can. If I want the full theater I can go down to the basement and fire up the projector and 7.4.2 system. A soundbar is pretty unobtrusive comparatively.

Used to get entire 2U server boards marked for parts and try to revive the chips. Ended up getting half a dozen working Xeon's although some required a few kludges. I'd go with the tray.

It's a fair chunk of change saved but I do worry about the possible lack of recourse if it turns out to be an arse unit. The vendor seems pretty cool though and offered a year's personal warranty, but words are easy and all.

Also no stock cooler unlike boxed R5 3600s so that's something else to spend on

yeah you want the stock cooler. Just good to have for testing post.

Hopefully both our other cats get along with the new baby so they each at least have a new friend to play with. Heck, maybe Theo'll even play peacemaker between them somehow and the other grump will stop trying to maul my kid (the other cat)

"you have a heart of gold, don't let them take it from you"

Will pass the words along to family, haha.

Asus and pretty much all manufacturers had to raise prices yesterday because of tariffs exemptions expiring. Newegg did a drop yesterday and Best Buy today but notably it both dropped at old MSRP. Small retailer I spoke to, got stock in right before the price hike and said he was going to keep old MSRP but if his cost increases he will increase his prices to new MSRP.

Buying PC parts is so shitty right now. Nvidia raised their prices on AIBs and then AIBs also are getting hit by the tariffs again, so a double whammy. The end result has been the consumer quite quickly overpaying for gear that may end when the next administration comes in and revokes tariffs.

@netforce excellent summary. I'm somewhat glad that I wasn't aiming for a "modern" build to begin with on account of this but it's pretty much a lose/lose scenario for consumers anyway because this seems to have empowered scalpers.

@fraggler unfortunately it isn't and I don't really have a mind to try and spoof location if that's even an option cuz I'm lazy haha. Besides that the old lappy needs a bit of a breather, she's been through a lot.

I buy used GPU's because I don't play games.

I do sometimes but it's more just that I want to play some AAA games from years past that my current laptop can't really run at pretty high settings just because

Free shipping within my area too, but given the state of the market and the fact that this is a legit stranger I'm honestly wondering if I might be wiser to just put together a budget AMD rig at the same price point and shrug off the loss in performance.

Seems pretty nice, though my friend just got a PC on FB market with i7-8700, GTX 2080, 1tbssd, 32gb ram for $1k

Haha nice! What's sucky is taxes generally make components significantly more expensive here so I kinda just have to take an L when it comes to value. I ultimately decided to just stick with a new, less TOTL build because I'd rather have mfg. warranty.