Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda

Oh, my. Sorry to hear that poita. Hang in there.

I think that the kneeling during the anthem is ineffective primarily because NFL fans lean to the right of center. So he’s not likely to get much sympathy in that audience.

Frankly, I still consider kneeling before the flag to be pretty respectful. It’s not like he turned his back on it. In many settings, kneeling is exactly how you show respect.

Warbler said:

Puggo - Jar Jar’s Yoda said:

TV’s Frink said:

Puggo - Jar Jar’s Yoda said:

Americans prefer Trump to me.

Only via the Electrical College.

That’s even worse!

I don’t think you understand. She won the popular vote and lost in the electoral college.

But Frink said she lost in the ELECTRICAL College. That’s even worse!

TV’s Frink said:

Puggo - Jar Jar’s Yoda said:

Americans prefer Trump to me.

Only via the Electrical College.

That’s even worse!

The whole DACA thing is really sad. The thought of being 25 years old, having lived here my entire life, and being told I have to abandon everything and move to some far away strange country where I have never been, is just inconceivable. I understand that the “reason” is to dissuade future parents from bringing their kids here. But what a cruel way to accomplish that, punishing young people who are ENTIRELY innocent (to be in the dreamer program, you have to have a squeaky clean record). Furthermore, many of these young people have done EXACTLY what we keep saying they need to do – work hard to excel and assimilate. Heck, they have lived here their entire life and never even had to “assimilate”, any more than someone who was born here.

I also understand that sometimes innocent people are hurt in large numbers - but that is in wartime situations. This isn’t war, it’s economics. If this is the republican solution to some perceived crisis, then it shows me just how heartless and self-absorbed they have become.

It’s hard to say how well I would take it if I lost an election to Trump. I’d certainly be devastated, maybe even suicidal, when faced with the knowledge that Americans prefer Trump to me. It’s hard to imagine anything more humiliating for someone in her position. She is obviously psychologically “managing” it by dropping into a sort of self-defense “justification” mode. It’s not uncommon, although all it does is further tarnish her image.

The laserdiscs are identical, but with better quality. Then the GOUT is also identical, but better quality than the LDs. It’s fun and great practice to digitize VHS, particularly if you have one of the known great playback decks. But it’s hard to imagine it ever containing anyt detail not already revealed in one of the many GOUT-based projects.

Now, if your VHS is from a broadcast and has interesting commercials or other content of interest, that would be another story…

Silerwook is reviewing the latest version, checking for bugs.

I honestly think that some people cannot hear the difference between NUKE-LEE-ER (correct) and NUKE-YOU-LAR (incorrect). When I worked at a defense contractor, we had a highly educated engineer who said the latter, and we tried very slowly to teach him how to say it properly. He swore he was pronouncing it exactly like we were. After two years he never got it, and never was able to tell them apart either.

I’ve known physicists who mispronounce “nuclear”. I’m not convinced Bush did that on purpose. Do you have a source on that?

Just watched “Empress of Mars” and “Eaters of Light”. I thought they were fantastic. More to the point, these were really classic-style Doctor Who. They looked very much like Tom Baker episodes – slower pacing, multiple story lines, gritty settings with interesting human cultures, the party split up and each wrestling with their own problems, which then come together for the climax. And in a season with many cheesy endings, they both have GREAT endings. Anyone who likes old Doctor Who should enjoy these two episodes!

Looking back on the couple of days I devoted to this project, there were many “surprises” – at least they were surprises to me.

Started at 8pm, just after eating dinner, on day 1. Getting the stock radio out of the dash was pretty easy, and only took me about 2 hours. But the mass of wires on FOUR harnesses, was intimidating and seemed to bear no relationship to the back of the new radio. After reading the instructions, and various websites, I decide to go to bed, with the plan of calling Crutchfield in the morning.

Woke up, went to the farmer’s market, then started working on the car at about 10am. Crutchfield was VERY helpful on the phone and I had a pretty good idea how to make sense of the wires after talking to them. They suggested not worrying about the amp until after I am able to get just the radio working.

By about Noon I have the radio functioning. I decide to go ahead and also install the amp. Needed to buy the wire stripper, but I was expecting that. That’s when the fun really started:

• had to buy better wire splicers (the twisty ones they provided were unreliable)
• there were no instructions on wiring the amp (another phone call to Crutchfield)
• didn’t know how to run wires from the battery (drove to two auto stores)
• where to put the amp? Can it really go in the dash behind the radio? (another phone call to Crutchfield)

Crutchfield help is really good on pretty much all of the calls, even though I get different people each time I call. One minor hiccup having to do with a blue wire… on mine it’s blue but the guy on the help line swears it’s blue and white. Eventually he decides that one of our manuals (probably his) is wrong.

It is REALLY easy to drop stuff down the various areas of the dash and gearshift column. There are at least three “pits of despair”. One I was able to get at by removing the gearshift harness (not as hard as it sounds). One I was able to get at by going in through the side by the passenger’s feet. One was completely inaccessible, and there are now two items caught down there, presumably forever. I quite nearly lost a VERY important bolt down the second pit of despair, but was luckily able to fish it out with a pair of chopsticks after extensive dismantling around the firewall. Many bruises and cuts on my hands after this.

• important to route wires, or ways of getting at harnesses, BEFORE putting things in place. Twice I had to uninstall something I had finished installing, because my install was blocking access to a wire or a harness.
• Set any switches or jumpers BEFORE putting the item in place (doh!)
• Had to buy a wire crimper
• Had to buy various connectors
• Had to buy 12 feet of heavy gauge black wire
• Had to buy 12 feet of heavy gauge red wire
• Had to buy some long plastic tie cables for mounting the amp
• Had to buy a metric socket set so I could handle the various size bolts

It is 8pm on day 2, and the amp works! Ate a quick dinner.

Now I was ready to start on the speakers. I was imagining this to be the easy part. Ha! First, getting the stock speakers out of the doors involved drilling out some rivets. That sounded easy, since I have a power drill. But after removing the rivets, I still had to pry the fasteners out with pliers, and even a hammer to get the remants out of the door. I was concerned with whether my 1/8" drill bit was going to survive all this, considering there were four doors, four rivets per speaker per door, PLUS the instructions said to drill new holes IN THE DOOR panel. Yikes, that metal looks THICK. Much thicker than a rivet. Plus, it isn’t AT ALL clear how the various mounts work to position the speaker in the door – does the adapter face inwards or outwards? One way blocks the door panel, the other way looks like it might block the window from going up and down.

And a bigger problem - the mount Crutchfield provided doesn’t fit in the existing oval hole in the door. Am I supposed to enlarge the hole?

Instead, I went to sleep. It is nearly midnight, the end of day 2. I have ONE of the fours stock speakers removed – planning to call Crutchfield in the morning.

Day 3. I awaken at 6am and start browsing the web. Turns out, several people have figured out that it’s better to NOT use the mounting brackets supplied by Crutchfield, but to instead LEAVE the plastic stock mount in the door (don’t drill out the rivets), CUT OUT the stock speaker, and drill holes in the old plastic mount rather than in the metal door. To me, this makes a LOT more sense and would be gentler on my poor drill.

Now, I’ve already removed the first plastic mount – luckily, I hadn’t destroyed it in the process. After trying many different screws, I am able to jury-rig attaching the speaker to it, using a plastic ring that comes with the speaker and has a zillion holes to choose from. There are some more surprises along the way:

• cutting out the old speaker also necessitates cutting out these thick plastic bars behind it. Luckily, I have a small plastic saw that seems to work.
• routing the speaker cable through the plastic mount requires drilling a large hole.
• how to reattach the mount? Web says to buy a good riveter (ugh!). I get lucky, four big screws I find in the garage make a perfect grip and seem to hold it in place well. And luckily, I won’t need to find more of those screws because I’m NOT going to remove the other three mounts.

At this point, the door panel won’t go back on. Argh! Parts of it do, but parts don’t. What’s blocking it? Closer examination reveals – ugh – the panel has an oval plastic molded baffle that hug the original 6x9 mount, and my jury-rigged attachment extends beyond the side of the original mount. The baffle is bumping into my jury-rigged speaker mount. I have to cut the plastic oval baffle off of the door panel. This is tedious, and I end up doing it in one-inch segments with a large pair of wire cutters. Luckily, the grill doesn’t fall out as a result of cutting off the baffle (it appeared to be a possible risk).

It is now 10am and I have finished one front door speaker.

Amazingly, whereas it took over 3 hours to do the first door speaker, the next one only takes me 30 minutes since I now know what I’m doing. I also discover that I don’t have to saw out the plastic bars, they break off rather easily with a little twist. I’m also getting better at cutting off the baffle - seems once I get a stretch started, I can roll a bunch of it off.

Now for the back doors. They’re a bit different, since the enclosures are round rather than 6x9. They’re actually easier, as I don’t need to use the round plastic thingy - I can just drill screws right into the mount directly from the speaker. However, I need to use my power drill to get them started, since the plastic is thicker and there’s a big layer of foam that doesn’t come off as easy as for the front speakers. It takes me an hour to do both back doors. The first one takes about 40 minutes, the second only takes 20 minutes.

I ended up never calling Crutchfield about the speakers - the web was my consultant and I’m glad I mounted them that way rather than drilling holes in the door.

It is Noon on Day 3 and I’m done. Well, cleanup takes an hour. My back is sore, and my hands look like I just put in a deck in the backyard. I end up NOT using any of the speaker mounts they sold me (I suspect one of them may have been the wrong mount anyways), nor the wire splicing twisty things which mostly fall off. Probably spent about $60 in additional stuff. Total time on the project, about 20-24 hours.

Browsing Wikipedia, I see that there are many national emblems - a flag (1777), a seal (1782), a bird (1782), a mammal (2016), a motto (1956), an anthem (1931), a flower (1986), a march (1987), and a tree (2004). It’s nice having symbols like this, but the concept that they then become sacred objects with proscribed rituals, which when disobeyed brand the miscreant “unpatriotic”, or even a traitor, harkens back to ancient heraldic ways. I’m reminded of the peasant scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, when Arthur tells the peasant: “The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. That is why I am your king!” To which the peasant responds: “Well you can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!”

I prefer thinking of honest efforts towards improving the country to be patriotic acts. When major human rights changes are enacted, hindsight/history often treats the early NON-VIOLENT protesters much better than the scorn with which they were treated at the time (see Time Magazine’s Top 10 nonviolent protests for some examples). In my opinion, taking a knee and still facing the flag during the anthem seems quite a respectful mode of protest, especially when compared to, say, turning one’s back on the flag. I think that history will treat it well, and that the vitriol exhibited towards it will appear childish years from now.

Furthermore, I’m not all that impressed by some of the emblems. “In God We Trust” is hardly an appropriate emblem for a nation touting separation of church and state. Am I unpatriotic for suggestion this? I just want the best for my country. Benjamin Franklin himself expressed regret for the choice of the Bald Eagle. If members of an alleged free state are vilified for questioning its symbols, or for utilizing symbolic acts to make important points of contention with how the country is run, then perhaps the freedom has room for improvement.

The national anthem didn’t even become the official anthem until 1931. It’s hard for me to get too worked up about it… frankly it’s not even a very good song. I wish “America the Beautiful” were our anthem - it’s a better tune and a better message. The anthem is mainly that we’re great because we win wars. America the Beautiful describes a place anyone would want to live.

Actually, mine apparently is a DVD player. It’s hard for me to imagine my having a use for a DVD player in a car, since I don’t have kids. Any ideas?

Anyone else out there try the Crutchfield’s DIY approach and, like me, found it way, WAY harder than you were expecting? Two whole days - yikes! Now I am the first to admit that I am not very handy at this sort of thing. But it seemed like every single step had some unexpected wrinkle that I had to improvise my way through, and/or call them for help. And mine was probably the single most common scenario - 2010 Prius, replace the stock head unit and door speakers, and add a small power amp. Didn’t even add a sub. The few times I called, they were extremely good at explaining the steps, despite sounding quite bored (it was obvious they get asked the same questions over and over and over again). I did end up doing some steps differently than what they recommended, after browsing the web.

In the end, I’m proud to say I got everything working, it looks and sounds fantastic, and probably cost less (money) than if I had someone do it. But man, my hands are all sliced up, my back hurts, and I’m paranoid that my car is going to suddenly catch on fire.

It appears that I’ve fixed the issues. Sending a second test disc to Silverwook…

dahmage said:

TV’s Frink said:

yhwx said:

dahmage said:

TV’s Frink said:

At that rate, we’re not gonna have a hole lotta donuts by 1975.

WYSHS

No.

No.

Yes

This looks suspiciously like two computers teaching each other to count in binary.

Fixed the glitch, introduced another. Working on fixing the new one…

(DVDs with multiple aspect ratios are tricky!)

I’m a little confused… I just downloaded the latest despecialized editions myself using the instructions on the first post of Harmy’s thread, via Uloz just following his steps. It was extraordinarily easy and didn’t require understanding torrents. There’s not much easier anyone could make it given the size of the files.

Silverwook found one glitch in the menu navigation that I’m fixing now.

Whoa that’s some crazy stuff.

NPR noted that Trump’s speach on Afghanistan was carefully crafted to say he was staying there “despite his better judgment”. That way he can claim victory regardless of the outcome. If things go bad or stay mired, he can blame others and say “see, I was right”.

CatBus said:
I join Puggo in lamenting the death of Lightscribe.

I still have about 10 blank Lightscribe disks left. No plans to replenish them. Although they do look pretty cool, laserjet printing is full color, cheaper, and a LOT faster. Not lamenting all that much, frankly. Maybe 20 years from now I’ll pull out the old machine and burn a LS disk for old time’s sake. By then nobody will even know what a DVD is.

I’m pretty sure I have y’all beat when it comes to old video formats…
NTSC open reel, and even older CV open reel, both working decks.
That’s Sony CV – we’re talkin’ 1960’s. Didn’t even have a tracking control, because they hadn’t imagined anyone wanting to record on one deck, and play back on another deck.

I actually did one commercial video restoration project about 5 years ago that required restoring two CV tapes using that deck. Amazingly, they reproduced rather well. Got lucky on the tracking.