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Posted to rec.audio.tubes
Reid Reid is offline
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Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?

Way back when, a bit over 16 years ago in fact, I wrote this:
http://groups.google.com/group/news....934bbff7e1550#

I pop in occasionally to see how it's doing. It seems that despite
some horrific flame wars and personality clashes (and the inevitable
influx of spam), this group is still useful. I'm pleased.

What do you think? Is this still a cool place?

Reid
  #2   Report Post  
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John Byrns John Byrns is offline
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Posts: 1,441
Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?

In article ,
Reid wrote:

Way back when, a bit over 16 years ago in fact, I wrote this:
http://groups.google.com/group/news....read/thread/d7
a934bbff7e1550#

I pop in occasionally to see how it's doing. It seems that despite
some horrific flame wars and personality clashes (and the inevitable
influx of spam), this group is still useful. I'm pleased.

What do you think? Is this still a cool place?


Considering the general decline of the usenet, it is doing better than one might
expect, it is definitely still a cool place. Unfortunately the group is
currently suffering through one of its worst periods as a result of constant OT
political posts by a craized Australian wing nut, one can only hope that he will
eventually tire of his OT silliness.

--
Regards,

John Byrns

Surf my web pages at, http://fmamradios.com/
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Reid Reid is offline
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Posts: 2
Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?

On Sep 13, 10:03*am, John Byrns wrote:
In article ,

*Reid wrote:
What do you think? *Is this still a cool place?


Considering the general decline of the usenet, it is doing better than one might
expect, it is definitely still a cool place. *Unfortunately the group is
currently suffering through one of its worst periods as a result of constant OT
political posts by a craized Australian wing nut, one can only hope that he will
eventually tire of his OT silliness.

--
Regards,

John Byrns


Hi John. I'm glad to see you're still here! Thanks for the reply.

Reid

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Roger Kulp Roger Kulp is offline
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Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?

On Sep 13, 11:03*am, John Byrns wrote:
In article ,

*Reid wrote:
Way back when, a bit over 16 years ago in fact, I wrote this:
http://groups.google.com/group/news....browse_thread/...
a934bbff7e1550#


I pop in occasionally to see how it's doing. *It seems that despite
some horrific flame wars and personality clashes (and the inevitable
influx of spam), this group is still useful. *I'm pleased.


What do you think? *Is this still a cool place?


Considering the general decline of the usenet, it is doing better than one might
expect, it is definitely still a cool place. *Unfortunately the group is
currently suffering through one of its worst periods as a result of constant OT
political posts by a craized Australian wing nut, one can only hope that he will
eventually tire of his OT silliness.

--
Regards,

John Byrns

Surf my web pages at, *http://fmamradios.com/


It's a helluva lot more civilized,and saner than the knock-down drag-
out brawls,at rec.music.classical.recordings

Roger
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Patrick Turner Patrick Turner is offline
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Posts: 3,964
Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?

On Sep 14, 3:03*am, John Byrns wrote:
In article ,

*Reid wrote:
Way back when, a bit over 16 years ago in fact, I wrote this:
http://groups.google.com/group/news....browse_thread/...
a934bbff7e1550#


I pop in occasionally to see how it's doing. *It seems that despite
some horrific flame wars and personality clashes (and the inevitable
influx of spam), this group is still useful. *I'm pleased.


What do you think? *Is this still a cool place?


Considering the general decline of the usenet, it is doing better than one might
expect, it is definitely still a cool place. *Unfortunately the group is
currently suffering through one of its worst periods as a result of constant OT
political posts by a craized Australian wing nut, one can only hope that he will
eventually tire of his OT silliness.


This group, rec.audio.tubes has only a tiny amount of technical
discussions relating to vacuum tubes compared to 10 years ago when
maybe there were 100 posts a day and many of those posting were
wearing out their soldering irons buiding various item, mainly tubed
audio power amps and preamps.

There is an extremely small amount of practical work building tube
operated gear going on. Most guys who turned 50 some ten years ago got
an urge to build the amp iof their dreams like they always wanted to
for the previous 30 years but were stopped by having to work and raise
a family and deal with a missus who said NO. Well, finally they got
the fad, built their amps, and then what? Fads abd crazes don't last,
and nobody knows what they are doing now at age 60. Given up on a
whole lotta stuff "they used ta do" once when they were young. My
living is earned by working with vacuum tubes, and I'd be one of the
rare types who is still interested and has wonderment for what I still
achieve with a soldering iron, and who also delights in sharing the
whole darn journey by maintaining a relevent website and talking to
ppl here or anywhere. Its actually difficult for me to ever find
others able to discuss vacuum tube stuff at my level so I keep out of
other internet forums where the usual discussion is a series of single
sentence comments which contain so little useful info and such dumb
questions that I'd be wasting my time by being there. They know where
I am though, and that I reply to private emails if they have a
question, but of course typing to each other is 99% of what they do,
where WORK is 99% of what I do.
The social media like FarceBook and ****ter has absorbed the time of
millions who like to connect, so groups like this were doomed to loose
posters because "alternative pubs" have opened their doors. I never go
to pubs where ppl sit about bull****ting to each other. The Internet
seems to bring Fake Freindships, ppl think thay have friends if they
Farce around or **** about in social media. I don't feel any need, and
could be called a loner, misfit, unsociable, but such labels don't
stick because there's a lot of ppl I like in the REAL WORLD, and who
like me.

I don't mind being labelled a "craized Australian wing nut" who has
said more on vacuum tube use than everyone else put together for the
last 10 years. I do have many political/social/ecomomic opinions and
many here seem very glad to read my long posts on such matters. It
gives them something to interest them, and someone to flame and
insult, and a vent for all the alternative opinions that exist in the
minds of maybe 4 regulars from the USA who lurk here, and who hate my
guts because I am so disagreable with redneck hardline right wingers.
Millions of other left wing "socialist scum" also disagree with the
ardent voices which always disagree with anything I say about the
world. There IS A HUGE APPETITE for OT subjects amoung a few here and
all the limp dicked wallys who dislike any message with more than 3
sylables hate OT, and expect a world to have its people talking just
ONE sentence to each other each day, rather than have a world where
people might say 500 sentences to other people. So a vast number of
people have grown to hate hanging out at this group because ppl like
me spoil the place, as well as those who reply to every word I say
with huge unsnipped posts which are too big sometimes for Google to
give to me in their entirity. Flipper is such an example. He thinks I
am a terrible ****struck socialist son of a pig.

But Flipper has huge trouble getting a socialist lable to stick
because he's so inept at personal judgements. If he were to use his
words and brain more wisely he'd notice that I am a capitalist, but
not the ratbag FU2 type who tramples over everyone and everything in
the name of progress. I run a business which I own, and its 31 years
since I worked for an employer or was a member of any union. I've
never been a member of a political party. But I love the fact my
country has FREE MEDICAL CARE for EVERYONE and that law and order here
is so good that our gun ownership is far lower than the USA. I'm quite
happy to pay my taxes, and I know that much of Big Business is amoral
and inefficient in 101 different ways. Sure Big business is mainly
responsible for much basic happiness in the world - when its not being
arsolic. Big Government can be seen the same way - thank goodness for
the roads and bridges, and traffic laws, police, legal system et all.
Sure there are arsoles in Gov and the Gove owned public service, but
there are more good ppl than arsoles. Seems to me a sensible mix of
private enterprize and socialist Gov activities allows the best of
living to happen.

I don't expect people I meet anywhere, including here, to be able to
tolerate all they see in anyone else, but anyway, I don't give a ****
how many rotten cabbages are thrown at me daily.

To be able to happily survive in un-moderated groups like this one
takes a certain kind of personality which allows one to never worry
about being called a truckload of horrible names. I'll still say what
I think and mean what I say where possible.

It'd be a very dull world without the OT.

If you don't like OT, then don't read the posts, but meanwhile its a
free world and nobody has the right to shut me or anyone else up.

That's enough BLATHER for 15 minutes!

Patrick Turner.

--
Regards,

John Byrns

Surf my web pages at, *http://fmamradios.com/




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Engineer[_2_] Engineer[_2_] is offline
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Posts: 209
Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?

On Sep 13, 1:03*pm, John Byrns wrote:
In article ,

*Reid wrote:
Way back when, a bit over 16 years ago in fact, I wrote this:
http://groups.google.com/group/news....browse_thread/...
a934bbff7e1550#


I pop in occasionally to see how it's doing. *It seems that despite
some horrific flame wars and personality clashes (and the inevitable
influx of spam), this group is still useful. *I'm pleased.


What do you think? *Is this still a cool place?


Considering the general decline of the usenet, it is doing better than one might
expect, it is definitely still a cool place. *Unfortunately the group is
currently suffering through one of its worst periods as a result of constant OT
political posts by a craized Australian wing nut, one can only hope that he will
eventually tire of his OT silliness.

--
Regards,

John Byrns

Surf my web pages at, *http://fmamradios.com/


John, in defence (that's Canadian!) of Patrick, he may have a style
that some don't like but he has some of the best understanding of tube
audio you can find anywhere. So, let's discuss content... good, bad,
and indifferent, and avoid personal remarks!
Best to all.
Cheers,
Roger
  #7   Report Post  
John L Stewart John L Stewart is offline
Senior Member
 
Location: Toronto
Posts: 301
Smile

Quote:
Originally Posted by Engineer[_2_] View Post
On Sep 13, 1:03*pm, John Byrns wrote:
In article ,

*Reid wrote:
Way back when, a bit over 16 years ago in fact, I wrote this:
http://groups.google.com/group/news....browse_thread/...
a934bbff7e1550#


I pop in occasionally to see how it's doing. *It seems that despite
some horrific flame wars and personality clashes (and the inevitable
influx of spam), this group is still useful. *I'm pleased.


What do you think? *Is this still a cool place?


Considering the general decline of the usenet, it is doing better than one might
expect, it is definitely still a cool place. *Unfortunately the group is
currently suffering through one of its worst periods as a result of constant OT
political posts by a craized Australian wing nut, one can only hope that he will
eventually tire of his OT silliness.

--
Regards,

John Byrns

Surf my web pages at, *http://fmamradios.com/


John, in defence (that's Canadian!) of Patrick, he may have a style
that some don't like but he has some of the best understanding of tube
audio you can find anywhere. So, let's discuss content... good, bad,
and indifferent, and avoid personal remarks!
Best to all.
Cheers,
Roger
John B talks a lot but we see no work, action or otherwise. John B depends on others to research his ideas as he continues to dream on.

Patrick T talks a lot and we see lots of action & results. And some very important political comments, all worth our consideration.

Take your pick! My 2 schillings, anyway.

John L Stewart
  #8   Report Post  
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John Byrns John Byrns is offline
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Posts: 1,441
Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?

In article ,
Engineer wrote:

On Sep 13, 1:03*pm, John Byrns wrote:
In article
,

*Reid wrote:
Way back when, a bit over 16 years ago in fact, I wrote this:
http://groups.google.com/group/news....browse_thread/...
a934bbff7e1550#


I pop in occasionally to see how it's doing. *It seems that despite
some horrific flame wars and personality clashes (and the inevitable
influx of spam), this group is still useful. *I'm pleased.


What do you think? *Is this still a cool place?


Considering the general decline of the usenet, it is doing better than one
might
expect, it is definitely still a cool place. *Unfortunately the group is
currently suffering through one of its worst periods as a result of
constant OT
political posts by a craized Australian wing nut, one can only hope that he
will
eventually tire of his OT silliness.

--
Regards,

John Byrns

Surf my web pages at, *http://fmamradios.com/


John, in defence (that's Canadian!) of Patrick, he may have a style
that some don't like but he has some of the best understanding of tube
audio you can find anywhere. So, let's discuss content... good, bad,
and indifferent, and avoid personal remarks!


Roger, that is the point, Patrick doesn't avoid personal remarks in his OT
rants. While I may not be a target of his personal remarks, others are,
including individuals, citizens of the USA, and humans in general.

Bottom line, it would be better if he confined his remarks here to tube lore, as
defined in this groups charter, and took his political and environmental
religious pronouncements to to other groups where they would be on topic.

--
Regards,

John Byrns

Surf my web pages at, http://fmamradios.com/
  #9   Report Post  
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Patrick Turner Patrick Turner is offline
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Posts: 3,964
Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?

On Sep 19, 12:05*am, John L Stewart John.L.Stewart.
wrote:
'Engineer[_2_ Wrote:





;938999']On Sep 13, 1:03*pm, John Byrns wrote:-
In article

,


*Reid wrote:-
Way back when, a bit over 16 years ago in fact, I wrote this:


http://groups.google.com/group/news....browse_thread/....
a934bbff7e1550#-
-
I pop in occasionally to see how it's doing. *It seems that despite
some horrific flame wars and personality clashes (and the

inevitable
influx of spam), this group is still useful. *I'm pleased.-
-
What do you think? *Is this still a cool place?-


Considering the general decline of the usenet, it is doing better than

one might
expect, it is definitely still a cool place. *Unfortunately the group

is
currently suffering through one of its worst periods as a result of

constant OT
political posts by a craized Australian wing nut, one can only hope

that he will
eventually tire of his OT silliness.


--
Regards,


John Byrns


Surf my web pages at, *http://fmamradios.com/-


John, in defence (that's Canadian!) *of Patrick, he may have a style
that some don't like but he has some of the best understanding of tube
audio you can find anywhere. *So, let's discuss content... good, bad,
and indifferent, and avoid personal remarks!
Best to all.
Cheers,
Roger


John B talks a lot but we see no work, action or otherwise. John B
depends on others to research his ideas as he continues to dream on.

Patrick T talks a lot and we see lots of action & results. And some very
important political comments, all worth our consideration.

Take your pick! My 2 schillings, anyway.

John L Stewart


And to avoid another stoopid war of words about the 2008 GFC and how
the world is still fulla problems the deniers refuse to aknowledge, I
suggest they read a book, titled 'EXREME MONEY : The Masters of the
Universe and the Cult of Risk" written by Satayit Das, published bt
Penguin, $32..95 in Oz.

The problem of all OT discussions is that discussees so often are
fulla misinformed beliefs about 101 things, leading them to
inconsistent behaviours where, for example, while they earn more than
100 grand a year, they think the rich should pay more taxes, but oh
no, not them. Or, All immigrants are gate crashing arsoles when their
grandparents arrived in the great increase in population of the USA
about 80 years ago, when the USA opened its arms to all manner of of
the poor and the down trodden. Oh, and greenhouse effect. To many ppl
it ain't happening, and if it is, someone else is the cause. But
were'e all in this world together and equal rights and duty of care
apply. Trouble with greenhouse is that its such a slow moving effecxt,
its easily denied. In 50 years, YOUR better educated offspring will
have a better idea and be more concerned about doing something about
it but of course scientists know the CO2 may take +20dB longer time to
reduce after we've increased it. So survival will be the focus in 50
years, and in 500 years, as it always has been IMHO. So there's no use
calling be wrong about worldy stuff, that ain't gonna make you right,
or make me right when I'm wrong, but even unpleasant worldly trends
are part of the wonderment of being human, and worth discussion.

I can think all about tube things for 1/2 my day, but I'd be a mental
retard if my mind didn't stray to other matters of worldly importance.
While some would be say I'm well on the way to being 100% insane,
usually its the pot calling the kettle black.

I'd be more enthusastic about working on tube stuff today if were not
for a fuct ankle which I crushed in a motorcycle prang some 43 years
ago and the arthritis is now preventing big efforts to control the
garden at my joint.
Two weeks of spring gardening has me hobbling around like a cripple,
and I even suffered during a bike ride yesterday.
BUT, I will get time to plant a few pumpkin seeds and let pumpkin
plants run amok over the huge heap of garden refuse I've gathered up
so that my front yard looks a bit like a wog's backyard. But the 25
cubic metres of fairly well compacted stuff is a Neat Heap, not a
mess. We are not allowed to burn stuff off like we used to, and costs
for rubbish removal is high, so what can be composted should be
composted IMHO, because it otherwise is composted at commercial
premises which sell it back to the public. In 3 years when the heap
reduces, maybe I get to make the sunny bit of ground grow a few
vegies.

Of course we cremate bodies here OK, maybe 6 grand a pop, and one day
I'll zip up the chimney like the others and my atoms will find others
to make whoopee with and form new life, and the future world. BTW,
this is real re-incarnation, nothing to be frightened of. We are here
to only borrow a few atoms for awhile, and then they are re-cycled.
Burying under 6 feet of ground seems such a silly slow way to re-cycle
a body, and without O2 involved much you tend to get CH4, much worse
than CO2.

Hopefully, my atoms won't find their way into too many problem
children, mentioned in the title of this thread.

Patrick Turner.
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Iain Churches[_2_] Iain Churches[_2_] is offline
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Posts: 1,719
Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?


"John Byrns" wrote in message
...
In article
,
Reid wrote:

Way back when, a bit over 16 years ago in fact, I wrote this:
http://groups.google.com/group/news....read/thread/d7
a934bbff7e1550#

I pop in occasionally to see how it's doing. It seems that despite
some horrific flame wars and personality clashes (and the inevitable
influx of spam), this group is still useful. I'm pleased.

What do you think? Is this still a cool place?


Considering the general decline of the usenet, it is doing better than one
might
expect, it is definitely still a cool place. Unfortunately the group is
currently suffering through one of its worst periods as a result of
constant OT
political posts by a craized Australian wing nut, one can only hope that
he will
eventually tire of his OT silliness.



Yes definately still a cool place:-)

Tube/valve audio was enjoying something of a renaissance
before the recession set in. I don't know if the situation
here in Scandinavia reflects what is going on in the US, the
UK or Oz, but here, there was considerable interest in
building and renovating tube/valveamps. So much so that
we had local evening classes to teach people the basics.
There was even a project amp. I was asked to take along
several vintage amps for people to look at and listen
to. The neat internal appearance of the Leak TL12
impressed everyone, and the sound of my 1971 vintage
Radford STA 100 left nobody cold.

But people quickly learned that thermionic audio is not a
cheap hobby, and the key component, the OPT can costs
a great deal of money (several times more than a complete
SS amp) And without a professionally finished chassis, it
is difficult to produce an amplifier that "looks the money"

Also although one follows the schematic meticulously,
there is no guarantee that a PP amp with copious amounts
of global FB will be stable. In these plug and play days of
instant gratificiation, critical damping is a bridge too far
for all except the most dedicated.

And so, here at least, the flame has died down almost as
quickly as it flared.

But fortunately RAT soldiers on:-)

Iain





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Engineer[_2_] Engineer[_2_] is offline
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On Sep 19, 11:10*am, "Iain Churches" wrote:
"John Byrns" wrote in message

...


(snip)

But fortunately RAT soldiers on:-)

Iain


Yes, RAT soldiers on... and a good thing, too. So does
rec.antiques.radio+phono, my other vice!
Cheers,
Roger
  #12   Report Post  
Posted to rec.audio.tubes
Iain Churches[_2_] Iain Churches[_2_] is offline
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Posts: 1,719
Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?


"Engineer" wrote in message
...
On Sep 19, 11:10 am, "Iain Churches" wrote:
"John Byrns" wrote in message

...


(snip)

But fortunately RAT soldiers on:-)


Yes, RAT soldiers on... and a good thing, too. So does
rec.antiques.radio+phono, my other vice!


Many Usenet groups have declined both in
quality of content and in the number of
contributors due to the presence of hooligans
who, for reasons know best to themselves,
want to disrupt the discussion.

Audio, in particular valve/tube audio is
prone to this - with valves and vinyl
being a target for much wrath.

Not to mention SE valve/tube amps:-)

Iain






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Arny Krueger[_4_] Arny Krueger[_4_] is offline
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Posts: 854
Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?

"Iain Churches" wrote in message
...


Many Usenet groups have declined both in
quality of content and in the number of
contributors due to the presence of hooligans
who, for reasons know best to themselves,
want to disrupt the discussion.


If that were the dominant factor, then moderated groups would be immune to
the decline. IME, they are not.

If that were the dominant factor, then groups are generally orderly would be
immune to the decline. IME, they are not.

The impact of social networking strikes me as being a stronger force.

Audio, in particular valve/tube audio is
prone to this - with valves and vinyl
being a target for much wrath.


In fact, the majority of the wrath in those areas is expressed by advocates
who can't agree about the best way to advocate, or are just wired to be
hostile and argumentative.

Not to mention SE valve/tube amps:-)


I continue to find it interesting that these are taken seriously today given
that mainstream audio abandoned SE amps for high performance audio as soon
as they could - in the late 1920s at the latest.

Those that are ignorant of history are forced to repeat it, I guess!


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Patrick Turner Patrick Turner is offline
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Posts: 3,964
Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?

On Sep 20, 1:10*am, "Iain Churches" wrote:
"John Byrns" wrote in message

...





In article
,
Reid wrote:


Way back when, a bit over 16 years ago in fact, I wrote this:
http://groups.google.com/group/news....browse_thread/....
a934bbff7e1550#


I pop in occasionally to see how it's doing. *It seems that despite
some horrific flame wars and personality clashes (and the inevitable
influx of spam), this group is still useful. *I'm pleased.


What do you think? *Is this still a cool place?


Considering the general decline of the usenet, it is doing better than one
might
expect, it is definitely still a cool place. *Unfortunately the group is
currently suffering through one of its worst periods as a result of
constant OT
political posts by a craized Australian wing nut, one can only hope that
he will
eventually tire of his OT silliness.


Yes definately still a cool place:-)

Tube/valve audio was enjoying something of a renaissance
before the recession set in. *I don't know if the situation
here in Scandinavia reflects what is going on in the US, the
UK or Oz, but here, there was considerable interest in
building and renovating tube/valveamps. So much so that
we had local evening classes to teach people the basics.
There was even a project amp. *I was asked to take along
several vintage amps for people to look at and listen
to. *The neat internal appearance of the Leak TL12
impressed everyone, and the sound of my 1971 vintage
Radford STA 100 left nobody cold.

But people quickly learned that thermionic audio is not a
cheap hobby, and the key component, the OPT can costs
a great deal of money (several times more than a complete
SS amp) * And without a professionally finished chassis, it
is difficult to produce an amplifier that "looks the money"

Also although one follows the schematic meticulously,
there is no guarantee that a PP amp with copious amounts
of *global FB will be stable. In these plug and play days of
instant gratificiation, critical damping is a bridge too far
for all except the *most dedicated.

And so, here at least, the flame has died down almost as
quickly as it flared.

But fortunately RAT soldiers on:-)


And you forgot to mention the majority of re-born enthusiasts were
soft flabby gutted types who don't like criticism and real deep study
of anything so they mainly left r.a.t because of the heat from those
who were intolerant of even a small whiff of BS.

The same types also got old, I'd say average age since 2001 went from
49 to 59, a time of enormous decline in most blokes.

And you forgot that OPTs don't have to be expensive and they rarely
ever cost more than a whole solid state amp but of course as blokes
age they become Uncle Scrooge types who hate paying a cent for
anything as subconsciously the value of their lives and themselves
ebbs away. All these wannabe do littles could have learnt to wind
their own OPTs, ie, put the effort in where its needed, and get off
the arse and into motion. But all the old guys of America and Europe
have other ideas - to take it easy, and try to survive economic
depression they let happen, and survive their illnesses they have no
control over.

Compared to many other far more extravagant hobbies, like owning a
private yacht, private aeroplane, or a private mistress, tube audio
constructing has to be exremely cheep, but methinks many blokes just
got bored with devoting time to building gear because they'd never
much use it anyway, because only very few technically proficient
personalities actually like music a huge amount. How many OT posts
have there been at r.a.t about music? about zero compared to posts
about cars, guns, politices, hate, BS et all. Even my father thought
listening to music was a sissy activity. Stoopid *******. But lets not
psychoanalyse too much.

Now we enter a time of economic depression, and all because so many
people have spent more than they could afford. This may not have been
YOU, but musta bin the guy next door; certainly a lot of ppl
somewhere, or else everyone was robbed somehow. No bloody money now.
The love affair with credit has bit everyone on their lazy arses, and
meanwhile wives are putting final touches on fully controlling
husbands' dismal efforts in bed, out of bed, and with the family
finances. Mental castration is almost done. Let's face it, un-
castrated young males live such awfully expensive lives.

So as the decline looks set to continue as the sun sets on baby
boomers, I'm staying un-married, out of debt, fit as I can manage
easily, and staying armed with a soldering iron, and while other
technician blokes drop dead around me I plan to keep going until I
drop dead at some time. I've never seen such a crowd come to me this
last year for repairs and re-engineering. I got rid of my Yellow Pages
add, and still they came. But at least here in Oz, unemplyment is
5.3%, we've avoided recession, average wages are $67,000 per year and
some big international finance body awarded our national treasurer
Wayne Swan title "man of the year", because he's managed the Oz
economy so well, and that IS remarkable bearing in mind he looks and
quacks just like Donald Duck, and the Opposition Party thinks he's a
complete dickhead.

I'm moving into retirement next July and will get the old age pension,
and then I'll be able to say NO NO NO to a whole army of people
clutching faulty solid state junk which isn't very old and which
doesn't last very long these days.

So, I'll manage to go on as a local curmudgeonly type for some
forseeable future with some subsidization by taxpayers, which will
seem like winning the lottery after 15 years putting up with the
legions of arsoles who have expected me to slave away for payments far
low than they get themselves, and preventing me ever being more than a
technical "voluntary worker".

The sound of saying NO to someone wanting a cheap fix will echo like,
say, the Brandenburg Orchestra in my ears as I say NO to people. BTW,
you could all do a Google on the Brandenburg Orchestra, and you'd find
they give the very best of good music which is made heavenly with a
glass or two of dry red. Both will help anyone forget their downers,
until tommorrow.

Its a very nice spring morning here and my body has improved after
temporary ruination caused by last week's gardening efforts. So I'm
off on the bicycle to have coffee and read a paper some 35km away, and
just what the rest of the world gets up to is of SFA concern to me.

Patrick Turner.

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Patrick Turner Patrick Turner is offline
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Posts: 3,964
Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?

Someone said...

Not to mention SE valve/tube amps:-)


Arny blurted....

I continue to find it interesting that these are taken seriously today given
that *mainstream audio abandoned SE amps for high performance audio as soon
as they could - in the late 1920s at the latest.


Arny, hardly anyone takes you seriously, you stupid old dinosaur!

Patrick Turner.



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John L Stewart John L Stewart is offline
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Location: Toronto
Posts: 301
Smile

Its a very nice spring morning here and my body has improved after
temporary ruination caused by last week's gardening efforts. So I'm
off on the bicycle to have coffee and read a paper some 35km away, and
just what the rest of the world gets up to is of SFA concern to me.

Patrick Turner.[/quote]

I'm gone on the bike (the kind one must pedal) again in 1/2 an hour for 50 km or more. Was same yesterday & same Sunday. The TUBES are in the tires.

Then I will get on the tractor & haul some logs (not track)! The TUBES are the hydraulic hoses.

Gotta chain saw some fire wood for coming Winter. What? No TUBES?

Cheers to all, John L Stewart
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Iain Churches[_2_] Iain Churches[_2_] is offline
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Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?


"John L Stewart" wrote in message
...

Gotta chain saw some fire wood for coming Winter. What? No TUBES?


John.- I am engaged in a similar autumn task.
The wood we will burn this winter was cut and
stacked for drying three summers ago. We get
through about 1 000kilos of logs in a winter.
I like the idea of a self-renewing energy source.

http://www.kolumbus.fi/iain.churches...ummer/SC22.jpg

My Stihl chain saw certainly has a tube - a rubber
pipe around the hand-grip:-)

Cheers
Iain


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Patrick Turner Patrick Turner is offline
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Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?

On Sep 22, 4:54*am, "Iain Churches" wrote:
"John L Stewart" wrote in ...



Gotta chain saw some fire wood for coming Winter. What? No TUBES?


John.- I am engaged in a similar autumn task.
The wood we will burn this winter was cut and
stacked for drying three summers ago. *We get
through about 1 000kilos of logs in a winter.
I like the idea of a self-renewing *energy source.

http://www.kolumbus.fi/iain.churches...ummer/SC22.jpg

My Stihl chain saw certainly has a tube - a rubber
pipe around the hand-grip:-)

Cheers
Iain


The last time I bought a tonne of hardwood to burn during ceremonial
occasions, ie, when a sheila was positive to the idea of letting me
cook dinner for her, provide music, wine, and a damn good rogering by
an open fire was in 2006. Since then, all available shielas have dried
up, paused from men, whatever, and I have half a tonne of wood still
left.
The wood is eucalypt, and so darn hard only an idiot would try to cut
lengths off a log then split it by hand. Since 2006, the only fires
I've had were to roast a few defunct transformers to vaporize the
plastics so the cores can be salvaged with ease. I'm never in my
lounge in winter because I use a PC and 750W one bar radiator and TV
set in my bedroom, and I don't yearn for the nightly physicals with
sheilas because I'd rather get physical on a bicycle during daylight,
and unlike a sheila, the bike is so much cheaper to run, doesn't
whinge, and I can hop on any time I like, leaving me fit enough and
mentally un-distracted and not disconbobulated to better cope with our
100 nights of frost we get.
I really don't give a **** about my CO2 footprint. I'm on very low
wages, and spend 20dB less than most other folks do on things that
pong the Planet badly. Plus, I more or less deliberately refused to
have any kids, so people of the future won't have t compete with my
offspring for a bitta fresh cool air.
I'd really like a decent solar hot water system, and evap cooling for
summer, but all such things cost piles and piles of bucks.

Back in the days when I earned slightly more, I might go through a
tonne of wood a year. After about 15 years of blazing open fires, I
then I put a steel drop door in front of the fire to slow the flow of
hot air up the chimney. That made the open fire about 3 times more
efficient but it still wasn't much cheaper than electricity. But now
electricity has gone up and wood is marginally cheaper, and I should
demolish the front of the fire place and put in a decent cast iron
wood heater with turbo flow action, which would work better than my
home brew enclosed fire place. But the list of what I should do is a
long one, and very easily dismissed as expensive vanity, and of course
firewood ain't cheap, about $300 a tonne now, and when you buy a
tonne, the weight docket is false of course, a complete fiction, so
what ya pay is more like $600 a tonne. The extra two skivies and a
jumper are looking good.

I made a rather large compost heap after cutting my hedge to size last
week. Its all recycled carbon, but as it rots down and becomes soil,
much CO2 is released. Huge eucalypt trees in Oz forests are excellent
carbon sinks but if forests were not being flattened around the world
they'd have a neutral effect on CO2 because old trees die, rot to bits
while new ones rise to replace them, and there's no long term CO2
reduction. If someone is proud of using 1 tonne of firewood a year,
and considers it a renewable, its only 1 tonne, and meanwhile most ppl
need some sort of external power from fossil fuels - coal, gas, petro-
oils to enable their modern life to happen. With me, I need about 800
watts 24/7, and if one adds in the indirect fuel in food and delivery
of goods and services, the tonnage of non renewables is a very
depressing large quantity, hardly at all reduced by using wood fires,
compact flouro lamps, or not using plastic bags at the supermarket.

Maybe if Oz built a decent big thorium reactor in each major city and
if we banned our humungous coal exports, we'd have a cleaner greener
reputation, but I doubt such will happen soon. If the world moved
entirely to "renewables", what would the cost be? huge? probably. But
suppose the world managed to drastically reduce CO2, and invented
means of removing it from the atmosphere, while also reducing the cost
of energy over say the next 100 years, then that merely gives
everyone the chance to explore how greediy thay can be in 1,001 other
ways they cannot afford now. Not to worry, people get used to whatever
****ed up world they find themselves born into, and they'll just
muddle through their life like we do, congratualting themselves for
solving 1% of the problems while making everything worse. But maybe
with luck, we'll invent space travel faster than the speed of light,
and zip off to a new Planet ready for a rooting. There are now about
600 known planets outside the Solar system, and probably billions of
them Out There.

I see that I have a problem with the speed of light. One would think
that if there is a God, then whatever kinda entity it is would likely
have to know what's going on around the the little tiny known universe
we find ourselves in, plus also around the infinitely large number of
other universes outside of the one we perceive. For a God to know
about space and stuff far away, he'd need instant communications, not
limited by the terribly damn slow speed of light.

Anyway, whatever God is out there ain't letting us know very much
about anything; he ain't including us in the Big Picture. And so while
people like to use renewables, and be green, exactly why? And so why
raise a sweat being green, of acting renewably, when we have no clue
why and how all of existance came to be, and what our ultimate fate as
a species might be?

Maybe as a young man I subconsciously figured there were far too many
unanswered questions to proceed with breeding, and therefore this
avoiding the avoidable saved me raising the sweat, and thus
cluttering the Planet with too many ppl who don't have a clue about
why they are here. Maybe I figured I was just a mushroom boy, kept in
the dark and fed on BS. Meanwhile, the traffic jams only seem to get
worse, and ppl are paying $65,000 a kilo for rhino horn, and rhinos
will be extinct soon.

Everyone's problem child can be their own thinking.
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John L Stewart John L Stewart is offline
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Location: Toronto
Posts: 301
Smile

Quote:
Originally Posted by Iain Churches[_2_] View Post
"John L Stewart" wrote in message
...

Gotta chain saw some fire wood for coming Winter. What? No TUBES?


John.- I am engaged in a similar autumn task.
The wood we will burn this winter was cut and
stacked for drying three summers ago. We get
through about 1 000kilos of logs in a winter.
I like the idea of a self-renewing energy source.

http://www.kolumbus.fi/iain.churches...ummer/SC22.jpg

My Stihl chain saw certainly has a tube - a rubber
pipe around the hand-grip:-)

Cheers
Iain
Hi Iain- You are correct, my chain saws also have TUBES. The chain oiler has a small tube running from the oil reservoir.

Your photo shows some very good fire wood. The trees appear to be an evergreen plantation, all simlar trees I think. That is done here in some places when the land is found to be infertile for farming. It prevents the soil from blowing away. Still lots of good land left for food crops.

The forest at our property here is mixed hardwood & evergreen. Hardwoods such as red oak, ash, beech & maple grow well. Also pine.

I take only the dead stuff, except if something breaks in a storm. There are so called 'soft maples' here that grow at about twice the rate of the other hardwoods. These occasionally crash to the ground in storms. Altho they are called 'soft' it turns out the wood is very hard. It has many red streaks & burns well when dried. I'm also burning a lot of well dried sumach. They seem to die off at about 30-35 years of age. When dry they make an excellant fire.

When we built the house more than 40 years ago I investigated a combination wood & electric fired furnace. The provincial power company, Ontario Hydro was loaded with water (hydraulic) & nuclear power.

But I was running hard at the time, travelling extensively with HP in Canada & later with R&S. It looked to me that in spite of our wood lot I would have to buy the several cords of firewood each year. Based on that a good return on the investment required was not possible. So we went with an oil fired furnace.

The house has two large fire places, the one in the lower level used extensively each Winter. Not sure of the actual quantity of firewood each season, but I guess a half ton would not be far out. As is usual in these kinds of fire, most of the heat escapes up the chimney. No Sheilas are present as Patrick T has, my wife does not allow!

I have not used a gas chain saw in many years, gave the last one to my number one son. While building we installed underground 220/110 volt power over the entire lot. Outlets are scattered around in convenient places. I bought a one KW Hammond autotransformer many years ago & use that to run the largest electric chain saws available.

We will never run out of fire wood. Each Spring & Summer I have to burn off a lot of scrap. Last time a soft maple crashed to the Earth. I cut it up & delivered the best part to a neighbor. Burned the rest in the fire pit. He does heat his house with wood.

No bike today, we are getting rained on.

Cheers & Good Sawing, John
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Alejandro Lieber Alejandro Lieber is offline
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Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?

On 09/22/2011 06:51 AM, Patrick Turner wrote:

Back in the days when I earned slightly more, I might go through a
tonne of wood a year. After about 15 years of blazing open fires, I
then I put a steel drop door in front of the fire to slow the flow of
hot air up the chimney. That made the open fire about 3 times more
efficient but it still wasn't much cheaper than electricity. But now
electricity has gone up and wood is marginally cheaper, and I should
demolish the front of the fire place and put in a decent cast iron
wood heater with turbo flow action, which would work better than my
home brew enclosed fire place. But the list of what I should do is a
long one, and very easily dismissed as expensive vanity, and of course
firewood ain't cheap, about $300 a tonne now, and when you buy a
tonne, the weight docket is false of course, a complete fiction, so
what ya pay is more like $600 a tonne. The extra two skivies and a
jumper are looking good.

--

Patric:

Next year, when I'll have to sell this 15 years old eucalyptus trees, I
will get, with luck, U$ 28 a metric tonne. How many tonnes do I keep for
you ?
But you have to come and get them here in Argentina.

http://lieber.com.ar/euca.jpg

Alejandro Lieber LU1FCR
Rosario Argentina

Real-Time F2-Layer Critical Frequency Map foF2:
http://1fcr.com.ar


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Patrick Turner Patrick Turner is offline
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Default Checkin in. So how's my problem child doing these days?

But I was running hard at the time, travelling extensively with HP in
Canada & later with R&S. It looked to me that in spite of our wood lot I
would have to buy the several cords of firewood each year. Based on that
a good return on the investment required was not possible. So we went
with an oil fired furnace.


Oil heating was popular here until oil prices went high.
Gas is a lot cheaper now than electricity for hot water and space
heating

The house has two large fire places, the one in the lower level used
extensively each Winter. Not sure of the actual quantity of firewood
each season, but I guess a half ton would not be far out. As is usual in
these kinds of fire, most of the heat escapes up the chimney. No Sheilas
are present as Patrick T has, my wife does not allow!


Yeah, one reason I don't use much fire wood is that whenever the fire
gets low in winter, and I ask one of the sheilas to duck outside for a
couple of logs, they get a bit uppity and tell me how terrible it was
that some very uncool guy sang a song with words "Put another log on
the fire, cook me up bacon and some beans, and when your'e done just
sew my old blue jeans...." and I have to explain to them there's no
need to get cranky, I just want the wood, as I have bought my own
sewing machine. This usually calms them down, and of course I pour
them another glass of cognac, and pretty soon they are thinking about
bed and stuff, - and tomorrow's lawn mowing.

I have not used a gas chain saw in many years, gave the last one to my
number one son. While building we installed underground 220/110 volt
power over the entire lot. Outlets are scattered around in convenient
places. I bought a one KW Hammond autotransformer many years ago & use
that to run the largest electric chain saws available.


I've lusted after a decent chainsaw for years, but the shielas have
seen too many repeats of Texas Chain Saw Masacre," and I've always
been worried that they jealousy might lead them to using on each
other, or on the supports to the front portico.

So meanwhile I get by with a bow saw. I can hide the blade. But of
course one darn tree has become too large and needs to be cut as it
has begun to die anyway, and its grown right over the top of sewer
pipes, and I had to do a a big dig out and clean out 2 years ago. The
shielas refused to help, just too yukky. It is definately a man's job
to clean out the palace **** pipes.
Elvis once sang..... "I'm a hopin an' a prayin'..." and I never knew
what it was he was crooning about about, but I'm a hopin and a prayin
this fukkin half dead tree blows over soon, and thus gets pernanently
horizontal and good only to be burnt - before I do - and there's a
good chance it might happen, but if not, then the fukkin tree will get
to be a nuisance and hafta be manually felled the expensive way, ie,
at gi-normous expense, with a couple of blokes and a cherry picker and
bit by bit. Unfortunately, The tree is a bit too big to risk felling
in at 3AM like I did another 5 years ago, thus saving myself a grand
or two. The butt is now about 800mm dia. But its all hardword, makes
good firewood, maybe 3 tonnes in the tree, but rather a lotta work to
cut it to 600mm lenghths then split it, so I'll leave it in long
lengths after it is felled one day, and roll the logs to just inside
the hedge around my block.
The carbon should then remain trapped for 50 years, although when I
die the house & land will probably be bought by some yuppy vain
dickhead who will give the whole joint the shove and build a
monstrosity to replace it, with a carbon footprint +20dB greater than
mine ever was.

We will never run out of fire wood. Each Spring & Summer I have to burn
off a lot of scrap. Last time a soft maple crashed to the Earth. I cut
it up & delivered the best part to a neighbor. Burned the rest in the
fire pit. He does heat his house with wood.


Soft maple eh, Hmm, cutting eucalypt is something else. Not too bad
when green, but when its dry it chalenges the best saws.

No bike today, we are getting rained on.


I did your miles for ya John, so don't worry.

Patrick Turner.

Cheers & Good Sawing, John

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Patrick Turner Patrick Turner is offline
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On Sep 24, 9:52*pm, Alejandro Lieber alejan...@Use-Author-Supplied-
Address.invalid wrote:
On 09/22/2011 06:51 AM, Patrick Turner wrote:





Back in the days when I earned slightly more, I might go through a
tonne of wood a year. After about 15 years of blazing open fires, I
then I put a steel drop door in front of the fire to slow the flow of
hot air up the chimney. That made the open fire about 3 times more
efficient but it still wasn't much cheaper than electricity. But now
electricity has gone up and wood is marginally cheaper, and I should
demolish the front of the fire place and put in a decent cast iron
wood heater with turbo flow action, which would work better than my
home brew enclosed fire place. But the list of what I should do is a
long one, and very easily dismissed as expensive vanity, and of course
firewood ain't cheap, about $300 a tonne now, and when you buy a
tonne, the weight docket is false of course, a complete fiction, so
what ya pay is more like $600 a tonne. The extra two skivies and a
jumper are looking good.


--

Patric:

Next year, when I'll have to sell this 15 years old eucalyptus trees, I
will get, with luck, U$ 28 a metric tonne. How many tonnes do I keep for
you ?
But you have to come and get them here in Argentina.

http://lieber.com.ar/euca.jpg

Alejandro Lieber *LU1FCR
Rosario Argentina


Gees Rosario, I'd feel right at home over there in your forest of "gum
trees". Don't worry, despite the most terrible forest management
practices by Forest Industries here and the best efforts by GOD to
burn vast areas of gum tree forests in big bush fires, we still have
plenty gum trees in Oz, so I won't come to collect any wood.

But those trees you have look like they are nice and straight and when
they are sawn into logs and maybe milled after being air dried or kiln
dried, they should be worth much more than USD $28.00 per tonne. See
http://www.finlayson.com.au/download...l_hardwood.pdf

You need to "value add" to get more money. Growing trees for firewood
seems silly, and also woodchipping for paper seems silly, when far
better use for timber can be found.

Patrick Turner.
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