Red Tiger

How many electronics do we go through?

Here's how many key pieces of electronics I've owned:

DVD player....2 (Alba, Pacific)
PC................16 (4 Dell, Apple, The rest I built myself)
Laptop............4 (3 Dell, Toshiba)
Television.......9 (4 Hitachi, Triumph, 2 Ferguson, ITT, Toshiba)
Printer...........3 (Epson, DEC, HP)
Stereo...........2? (Matsui, Uhh...)
Cellphone.......6 (Bosch, 2 Ericsson, 3 Nokia)
Camera..........3 (2 Aiptek, Samsung)

(Brackets are the brand names of the products, sorted by buying date)
-Feel free to post in your own journal-


I should probably note that I've still got all my "old" things, with exception fo the larger TVs which were either totally dead & scrapped, or given away/sold... And since my Hi-Fi is in a contstant state of change, I can't really list how many components have made it up through its lifespan since I got rid of the Matsui thing about 10 years ago...
Also worth noting is that a lot of my stuff is second hand or scrap anyway! I'm a bit of a womble.

Thank you LJ.
What the fuck.

e2a:
Given uniq is not a valid layout or theme:
Given uniq is not a valid layout or theme:

Apparently, LiveJournal just felt like:

* Changing my layout
* Telling me the layer I created for the theme I was using doesn't exist
* Forgetting both of the above and reverting back to my proper style

I'd also like to add that the new customiser makes NO FUCKING SENSE.

Why do the people in charge seem so intent on ignoring the fact that prohibition doesn't work?
Are they afraid that we, the people, might start questioning their opinions elsewhere?

Today: Not much happened.
Tomorrow: I will be cutting up wood, clearing the end of the garden, dismantling what remains of the waterfall, cleaning my room and possibly trying to sort outher bits around the house out.

Of course by today I mean yesterday, and by tomorrow I mean today. Obviously.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n357/a09.html
Newshawk: JimmyG
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Fri, 4 Apr 2008
Source: Independent (UK)
Copyright: 2008 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact: letters@independent.co.uk
Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/209
Cited: Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs
http://drugs.homeoffice.gov.uk/drugs-laws/acmd/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Advisory+Counc...Misuse+of+Drugs
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

CANNABIS AND THE CLOUDS OF CONFUSION

Of all the "reviews" announced by Gordon Brown when he became Prime Minister last summer - from super-casinos to licensing laws - the inquiry into the re-classification of cannabis was one of the most cynical.

The right-wing press had been demanding for some time that the drug be elevated into the more serious category of narcotics. And so, despite the fact that the Government had downgraded cannabis to Class C only three years before, and despite the absence of any irrefutable evidence to support the assertions about its effect on mental health, Mr Brown gave the populist media what they wanted; or at least held out the prospect of it, by asking the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs - the official body which advises the Government on such matters - to review the legal status of cannabis.

The council now seems to have returned the wrong answer. A leaked report suggests it has decided that cannabis should, in fact, remain a class C drug. It has reportedly looked into the research again and found no new evidence to support the theory that cannabis use has resulted in an increase in the incidence of schizophrenia. And yet we are told that Mr Brown is still minded to re-classify the drug. In which case, the leaking of the advisory council's opinion serves a useful purpose.

We now know that, if the Prime Minister announces a reclassification of cannabis in the next few weeks, he will have stubbornly decided to privilege prejudice and political calculation over expert advice and scientific evidence.

***

e2a: In our current political climate, I personally believe it would be virtually suicidal for Brown to reclassify, despite the number of misinformed media sheep that seem to be voting. A BBC poll showed over 17000 readers were in favour of legalisation, versus under 4000 who were against it or supported reclassification. If people vote accordingly at the next general election, after the fuss Brown has made, I can see that he will not remain in power for much longer.
Note that this is not the only issue which I believe he is wrong on, just the most prominant in the media at present (excluding the olympics, which I have no interest whatsoever in, but do believe people should take note of the lies China is serving up).

This looks quite tasty... Might have found the replacement for my Aureon. When I get a new motherboard, that is.
Until then, I have plans to modify the Aureon and see what it can really do when given a proper line driver stage. Of course, this means I have to drag a +/-15V power supply into the computer for the soundcard alone. I suppose it might be an idea to allow for an auxiliary power output on my surround processor, which means it is more than likely going to need a 2U case of its own.
Hafler surround, rear and centre amplifiers (although all of these may be handled by one IC, two single ended 6W amplifiers for rear and a bridged 22W amp for the centre); then there's the adustable lowpass units for the subs, input switching and control, power supplies for the lot...

I'm rambling again. TL;DR my new system will be even more epic.

O hai Sirius, guess you decided you don't like me. Again.
So what did I do this time?

BTW: Was going to comment on your journal to say, Anonymous is not just one group of people as everyone seems to believe, more like several groups that hide behind the same name. The cancer that is killing /b/ is as much Anonymous as the Anonymous that complains about it.
Saying Anonymous is bad because some of them go too far or do something stupid is much like saying all furs are bad when a few do something monumentally retarded, because they all happen to be calling themselves furs.

So someone hacked Furnation, eh?

Of course, it wouldn't be much of a problem if the retards in charge had done sensible things like keeping backups, and not relying on Windows to be good at anything (particularly in the case of a server).

Sympathy for owners = none.
Sympathy for users = none.

Goodnight.

I just had a very bizarre dream...
About spending ages putting a new pump in our garden pond (which was actually not new, but tyhe one I put in there last year...), and then having a shower.
It was the most clean-feeling and relaxing shower EVER, you know: pleasantly warm, surroundings are warm, nice evening sunlight... Except it was out in the garden, in the corner of the patio. What.

Almost on a parallel with the dream I had about going to a massive party, which was in an old closed-down industrial... Thing... With a clock on the side of an equally inductrial looking tower telling people when it was all starting. Not very bizarre, but consider that it took 5 minutes to get there from my house the first time, and over an hour the second time; and you had to take a screwdriver to get in the front door (or any other door) and then crawl through a load of ventilation shafts to get to the "other side" of the same front door that you just walked through. That probably describes my mind quite well, actually.
Anyhoo, the place was full of alternative types, and Shadowman appeared to be there and acting as some sort of pimp. Seriously. Little table in the corner, surrounded by ... Girls apparently.

Very vivid, quite surreal, and yet they made perfect sense at the time.

Friends list has been cleaned up and updated!

Can't sleep.
Can't sleep.
CAN'T FUCKING SLEEP.
Probably something to do with reading the news, getting pissed off with how shoddy so much of the reporting is, and how biased the media (INCLUDING THE BBC) is.

Best one of the night: girl stabbed herself to death. Had been unstable and attempting to kill herself since age 14, was known to have mental health problems, and used speed on a daily basis. What do the reporters blame? CANNABIS! Not like speed is known to cause psychotic episodes or anything. And we all know a history of mental illness means nothing, after all. It's this dangerous "weed" that's the real problem. Wankers.

Anyway. I pride myself on good personal hygene LIKE ANY GOOD FURFAG SHOULD: HINT HINT. I just used a "new" (different) cleanser, and now I feel like I've rubbed used chip fat on my face. Will be binning that shit pronto.

***

Apparently a new version of Windows Shite Messenger is avaiable. Looks like I've got another computer to install Miranda on. Ya know, what with me liking this whole hard drive space thing that Microsoft seem so desperate to remove for me. Oh, and free system resources. Yeah. Like having them too.

Oh, and a quote from a chat I had a little while ago, after opening the "real" Yahoo and Windows Live Messengers for the first time in months:

Aydin Erramyine: tell ya what, using decent software like Miranda or Adium really does spoil ya
Stormy Rayne: yeah
Aydin Erramyine: it's far too easy to get used to something that doesn't crash all the fucking time, and has all the settings and options in logical places.

Note: I had to edit my name because Yahoo Messenger has decided to start using my REAL name in conversations now. I didn't tell it to, in fact I don't even know where the option to do it is. It just decided to change by itself half way through that conversation.
Will someone please explain to me why the fuck the more money a company has, the more retarded its programmers are?

***

My iPod mini needs a new headphone jack, since I've just about killed the original one now. It's going to get an external one on a flying lead for now methinks, really can't be arsed to track down a proper replacement now. Much as I love the thing, it's getting "old" and should probably be overhauled, upgraded, and retired to car duty. But I don't have the cash to replace it.

G'night ya fuckers. Lets see how many of ya really are shallow enough to remove me from yer friends list for that little episode.

Mew?

Best fucking music teacher I ever had. In fact, probably the best teacher in all of City Boys until he left. That guy played a pretty damn big role in my appreciation for such a wide variety of music, and love of HiFi equipment. One of the last things I did before I left CPBS was fix two of four knackered Denon speakers that belonged to him.

Didn't see this coming.

... And I'm off to Maplin to buy a 1A self-resetting circuit breaker.

Fed up replacing fuses in the AU-117 now, so I figure... 800mA time delay vs. 1A fast acting thermal breaker... The breaker offers about the same amount of protection given that the inrush overloads are virtually dead shorts (last night tripped the 16A breaker that feeds my Hi-Fi) and nothing else (even running the amp up to clipping levels) touches the 800mA fuse.
The fuse was a compromise to begin with, since the amp draws all of 250mA at full power!
If I can find a smaller breaker later on I'll fit that instead.

In the mean time I shall be listening via Rogers Ravensbourne amp + Goodmans Maxim 2 speakers. Yeh, my spare amp and rear surround speakers still blow everything you're likely to see on the high street out of the water. I'm looking at you Sony.

Big shout out goes to Shadowman and everyone that was at the Mermaid, including teh wunderfuls staff! Tonight was made of epic win!

To balance out the epic win, my Sansui amp just decided to start a career in pyrotechnics.

I need to sleep now, thank you and good night.

PLASMA! ... And high voltage power supplies!

Strangely, both of these link together quite nicely to make shiny things like plasma globes/spheres/balls and stuff.

Speaking of which, I now have one such globe which has the ability to take out almost all radio communication in the immediate area, and light fluorescent tubes from approximately 3 feet away!
On the downside, it draws over an amp at 12V, and will quite happily cook itself if left running for too long :(
BUT IT WAS FUN MAKING IT!

Still looking for advice on IRC servers & such.

Oh, and I really need some weed.

Bet I'll get more recommendations on the latter than the former.

So...

Anyone know any good furry IRC servers/channels where there are subjects other than sex and video games?
Or for that matter any channels at all that are worth at least visiting?

It's alright sitting on IM all the time, but there really are very few people I actually talk to nowadays, since most of the people I'd like to talk to are never online (Aamplythikheyes, Bungle, Stormy...) Or online rarely / don't talk much (about 80 of my other contacts).

Much as I hate IRC, it seems the best way to actually talk to people.
Or maybe I should just spend more time on 4chan. It's not like my morals couldn't stand to be lowered, after all.

***

I don't care how much the <center> tag is "depreciated", ss long as it works, I'll still use it.

***

Today, I have mostly been trying to find the schematic for the original RS "Illuma-Storm" plasma sphere. I've only got as far as finding out that it's based on a 555 astable and knowing that the frequency can be controlled, as apparently can the voltage. Anyone got any clues?

Of course, ideally I'd like to get my paws on a real one, instead of copying the electronics and installing that into the base of one of the many cheap copies that are available today. Seems that most sellers in the US won't ship internationally, though. *sadface*

Will people PLEASE stop posting this "X stole stuff from Y and Z" bullshit.

Seeing this all over my friends page, and all over LJ in general is really getting on my tits, and that takes some doing cus I don't have very big tits y'know.
Fuck.

"tl;dr: OMG FURRY DRAMA."

How evil are you?

... Freedom of speech and expression.

Whilst I was in the shower today, I started wondering: At what point does someones right to free speech or expression run out?

Surely, free speech should mean just that: nobody can stop you from airing your views by any medium whatsoever, no matter what those views are. Sadly this is far from the truth in reality but nonetheless, it should be. I suppose that's what counts. We can't fight for freedom of anything unless we define the boundaries of what we are fighting for first.

Freedom of expression is different, though. Someone can be free to express themselves in any way they want but up to a certain point. We stop calling it freedom of expression when someones use of "freedom" involves hurting someone else. Here, I would define hurting as any physical injury, or undue emotional stress. And herein lies the major problem: We are fast becoming a world of cowards.

"Undue emotional stress" has become "anything that I don't like looking at" and in turn "anything my religion says is bad". It's meant to be a way of preventing attacks on people in small social groups and the likes, by people in larger or opposed groups; not preventing people from doing anything that doesn't fit in with the common perception of "normal". What is that "normal" ideal? Well, in western civilisation, that seems to be whatever the local Christians say. By the looks of things, in eastern groups, it's whatever the local Muslims say.

What we ideally need is a set of boundaries that cover freedom of expression and speech, and define what is acceptable and what is unacceptable. In my opinion, the latter should be defined as "anything that causes actual physical harm to any other person". Lets call these boundaries the "freedom line". Stepping over this line means you're forfeiting your right to freedom of speech, and probably breaking the law as well.

This post could become a rant against religion again, but that's not my intention. Unfortunately, religion is the core motivation for the current world problem with freedom. We can safely say that all organised religions have severe issues that they need to deal with, and probably won't, so there's no point involving them in this any further.

So what can we do about the gradually disappearing freedom? Perhaps we should start by thinking about what these things really mean to us, and finding common goals instead of each individual "Internet freedom fighter" just ranting about how unfair justice is getting, and how poorly many civilised nations deal with people's freedom. For instance, I highly doubt that this post will have any impact on, well, anything.

***

My personal "bit" is with the legal system here in the UK. Where prisoners are always whining about their human rights, and are given free Internet access, Satellite TV, and so on. In my opinion, they have forfeited their rights to these luxuries by committing the crimes that landed them in prison in the first place. I know there are arguments for and against this, but that's my opinion, and I still stand by it. I can't see how being soft on people who have committed crimes like rape and murder helps them become "rehabilitated" - most of them will never be able to become a normal member of society. Not to mention the fact that good, honest people live harder lives than these prisoners.

What's this got to do with freedom of speech? Well, two things really - firstly, that's what I just excercised by saying this; secondly, people are finding themselves landed in prison for saying similar things. Not the same subject, as far as I know, but close enough - "I don't like the way my government deals with X because..." and you don't hear from them again for 15 years.

***

What sparked this off? All the drama (ohnoes! furries!) on FurAffinity about the new-ish "donate" banner featuring a cute version of the site mascot holding a sign reading "will drop pants 4 bandwidth", which because it was drawn by an artist who draws "cub porn" was instantly a sick, paedophillic reference to child prostitution and rape. This involves two massive jumps, firstly that the image was a cub, and secondly that anyone who likes anthro cubs in any form must be a paedophile. Neither was, nor is now, true.

Yes, the people who started this dramafest were excercising their freedom of speech and despite the fact they are wrong, they still have a right to say these things. My problem here, is that the things they were saying are enough in some countries to land someone in police custody, and give them a nice big "SUSPECTED PAEDOPHILE" tag in their (new) criminal record. Even though they've done nothing wrong, in the vast (98%?) majority of cases, because someone said it, it must be true. This links to several things I've said above - cowards who run crying at the thought that someone might hurt the children and then proceed to get someone else to do something about it, and the extreme reactions that the media- and religion-brainwashed public have to the finger pointing by the cowards.

The "cub porn" does no-one any harm, I'm pretty sure a fictional character can't suffer from real emotional trauma. I'd call this, just like anything else that is drawn, freedom of expression. Now, if someone starts taking/distributing photos of real children, that is stepping over the "freedom line", as they are doing something which can cause emotional trauma and physical harm to another person. But that's not what's happening here.

The fact that just because someone can make the erroneous connection between these two things, someone else can end up in prison is the problem. That's removing someones right to free speech and expression because of someone else's opinion.

I'm sure someone will find something to disagree with here.

Please explain to me why MSfags keep defending the heap of shit and fail that is Vista?

Even if you've been heavily biased against mainstream rap/hiphop, I strongly suggest giving this album a listen. It's not quite what you think. I'd go so far as to say that a lot of the hiphop/rap gang wouldn't actually like it. To intelligent and tuneful for them. Niggy Tardust.

Suggesting that my opinion of this album may be biased because Saul Williams happened to work with Trent Reznor on it will be taken as an act of terrorism. If you believe this is the case, call 1-866-445-6580.

Stolen from the frankly quite wonderful ksharra. Even though we don't know each other as such. And I just read her posts. And we've never really spoken. Etc..
Anyway, this is somewhat abbreviated, covering the last 10 years. Pretty hard for me actually, since just about everything I can think of off the top of my head is from 2003 (or I associate with 2003):

Choose 10-12 songs that define major events or parts of your life. You don't have to explain why you chose them, or what events they go to, just list them in chronological order...

My Life's Soundtrack:

1. Chumbawamba / Tubthumping
2. Wamdue Project / King Of My Castle
3. The Damned / Sanctum Sanctorum
4. Linkin Park / Somewhere I Belong
5. DJ Quicksilver / Free
6. Jeff Andvik / The Hobbit's Revenge
7. Manuel "Beatmax" Jekhul / A Different Kind Of Reality
8. Nightfall / Inverted
9. System Of A Down / Aerials
10. Apoptygma Berzerk / Unicorn
11. Covenamt / One World One Sky
12. Nine Inch Nails / Survivalism_Tardusted

Fireworks in Lewes rocked, good time was had, if a bit cold.
Pretty much sums up my weekend, no need for detail here, you had to be there to understand!

I have acquired some new HiFi equipment and some cute portable speakers, spent some of this evening trying to modify said speakers to bring them up to my normal standards. Looks like the manufacturer beat me to most of the mods, and others are impossible thanks to my limited quantity of stored components.

Maplin tomorrow, sleep now.