Sorry, I’m late to the party.

For audio equipment, buying used is relatively safe as long as it is something that isn’t too old.

What is too old? Old enough that the electrolytic capacitors haven’t reached their age limits. For cheap electronics this life expectancy is about 15 years. Cheap electronics as defined by pretty much everything you can buy at a box store. For higher end electronics with good build quality then you can move that number up to 30 years. In my collection, I have two McIntosh (high end) amplifiers that were built in 1992. Both work like new, but that’s McIntosh who is the very definition of you get what you pay for. I picked up a Marantz SR2002 for free a few years ago where its main channels were both out. The surround channels all worked and the main channels DID work when directly plugged into. What I found were dry solder joints on the input board. I spent about 3 hours resoldering the entire input daughter board and the motherboard to get it working again. Relatively easy fix for someone like me that has experience in electronics… But not something you’d ever want to pay the labor rate to have someone fix for you. The build quality on the Marantz is actually pretty decent. The capacitors in that SR2002, and there are a metric f’k ton of them, all seem really good.

Also, before you buy do an online search for the model number to make sure there are no systemic issues with the unit. I have a relatively new Onkyo receiver sitting in my electronics pile that I picked up specifically to repair it. I was thinking it would be something simple and I would have a receiver to use. Unfortunately, what went wrong with it was a proprietary microprocessor that is a known issue with that specific receiver. I picked it up for free, but it’s a paper weight. My plan is to part it out for other projects, so it’s not a total loss.

The only way I would purchase a television used, is if I could plug it in and let it play for a minimum of 2 hours. A lot of issues with electronic devices only show up with the device is fully warmed up.

As to how to asses the quality of a manufacturer… If you can buy it at Target, Walmart, or Best Buy (with a few exceptions from BB) then it’s mass produced junk. Designed to have a 10 to 15 year life span and then be thrown in the garbage. The exception with Best Buy is I’ve actually seen high end gear there… I was stunned when I walked past a rack at BB that was full of McIntosh gear powering Martin Logan speakers. Who the hell walks into Best Buy to drop $7k on an amplifier?

Anyway, I hope something in my ramblings helps you out.

I love puns and word play.

Puns are one of the few forms of humor that doesn’t have a target. No one is ever the butt of a pun and that is what I like about them.

"People say you forgive for yourself in order to move on. Personally it has never really clicked for me, how to forgive someone who hasn’t asked it or changed. "

This is a good point.

In this case the term “forgive” is almost, but not quite a misnomer. View it more as moving past the trauma and not letting it affect you in the future, irrespective of understanding the perpetrator’s behavior. This usually involves leaving them behind and ending all contact with them. Most people that behave in such a way to cause others trauma will never change. The only thing you can do is move past them and go on with your life.

I hope that makes sense.

DB Cooper has been the topic of Drop Zone conversations for years. The jump he made is perfectly doable by anyone trained in the practical application of aerodynamic decelerators. Albeit it was an extremely risky jump as I’ll detail below.

As a matter of fact I’ve gone out the air stairs of a 727. It was at the 1999 at the World Freefall Convention in Quincy, IL. It was fun, but a 727 on jump run is doing about 180kias when normal skydiving operations are around 90kias. It won’t injure you, but it feels like you’re getting hit by a ton of bricks. So not the funnest jump and I only did one, to say I did it. Going out the bomb bay of a B-17 (Nine-O-Nines RIP) was a lot more fun.

The general consensus in the skydiving community is that Cooper lived, but was probably injured. He jumped a round parachute, at night, in poor weather conditions. Even with modern gear that kind jump is extremely risky. Round parachutes go down where the wind blows them after exit. There is a little bit of control with a round, but nothing like a ram air chute.

He probably had a vehicle stashed close to the drop zone and was able to get to it with most of the money. If I recall correctly some of the money was discovered on a creek or riverbank some time later. He probably lived the rest of his life in secure obscurity… Or he might even still be alive.

Only he knows for sure.

Zestos and Polly’s Freeze and that’s about it.

I miss their malts, they were always the best.

No, the crew truly had no chance what so ever.

The data in the report also explains the grounding of the entire DC-10/MD-11 fleet. It’s AA191 all over again, only worse as debris caused one of the other engines to fail as well. I know the general opinion that it is #2 (honestly I think that too) experienced compressor stalls, but until the FDR analysis is published we will not know for certain.

This very well may spell the end of that line of aircraft.

AHEM!

AC/DC music is nothing more than 4 chords and a beat.

And you know, sometimes that’s all you need.

NTSB Prelim report is out

This accident IS a replay of AA191. The images in the report are incredible… In a very bad way.

Awesome! Blue Skies!

Yeah, sports shoes, hiking SHOES (not boots) are appropriate. The swoopers would wear shoes with little tread so that they didn’t catch anything on the ground. I’ve seen a few broken ankles like that and a boot would not have helped.

I’m a former jumper now. My last jump was in 2006. Main reason is I got bored and took my life in another direction. I did some CRW and was actually in the 100 record attempt in Lake Wales many years ago, although I have to admit I’m not the best CReWdog and got cut. So I’m not officially a part of the record, but I was there. I was on the record setting team for big ways in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky (65-ways). I think that was 1999 and not sure if those records still stand. It was all the same team, we just flew from our base at Skydive Greene County in Xenia OH over to Skydive Greensburg, IN and someplace in KY… Can’t remember what airport it was in Kentucky.

Also had a 4 and 8 way competition team. We traveled a bit to compete and went to nationals every year up until about 2003, until internal conflicts on the team broke it apart.

I took jumpers just off student status and trained them on canopy skills, hence my moniker. Never taught swooping, at least not with toggles. I consider toggle turns close to the ground too dangerous and have known people that were killed that way. I get it and I’ve never tried to argue people out of doing hook turns, but it’s not something I would ever teach or recommend. If you want to swoop use your front risers. Not as exciting, but you’ll have a much better chance at becoming an old skydiver. There are a couple of my former students who are professional skydivers today and you’ve seen them jump in movies. They have far out stripped this old dog, that is for sure and I’m quite proud of them.

Other than that, I did attain a USPA PRO license and did a lot of demo jumps. Stadiums, golf courses, a couple of NASCAR races and a few airshows. I hated doing airshows the most as it was typical for the director of the air show to know nothing about skydiving and I’d have to deal with weird restrictions. Just about got into a fist fight with one idiot telling me NO TURNS under 1500ft… Not even S turns. I told him to go fuck himself and I pulled my team out of the show. God damn whuffos.

My token is me under my PD Spectre 150 in 1997. I also had a Spectre 135 and a Sharp Chuter. Actually, I had several Sharp Chuters as jumping smoke destroyed them after a while. My container of choice was the Sunpath Javelin. I had a J-2 Javelin, which is what I was jumping in my token photo. My 135 was in one of the first Javelin Odysseys off the production line. I want to say it was a TNJ, but don’t remember and I sold it when I retired. I did demo jumps using a Dolphin. Back in those days you could buy one of those for $500 so if it got torn up due to smoke or some other demo jump thing it was not big deal. I think I did replace it once.

All in all I’m somewhere in the 4500’s for jump numbers. My log books have fallen to multiple moves over the last 20 years, so I don’t know the exact number. I know people with tens of thousands of jumps. The DZO of Skydive Greene County, Jim West, passed away last week and he was north of 20,000 jumps 25 years ago and I’m sure he added a lot more. He had more time in free fall that a lot of people have riding in planes.

Also, don’t take skydiving advice off the internet if it’s anything other than… “ASK YOUR JUMP MASTER or S&TA”.

BSBD

Yikes!

Hope you’re in a better place now.

This item sounds like it might be for a hobby.

An inviolate rule for gifts is you NEVER give a gift for someone’s hobby, unless they have specifically mentioned it. Then you buy EXACTLY what they tell you.

Case in point… I’m a former skydiver. It’s a sport full of extremely counterintuitive aspects. One of my brothers was in the army and did airborne training under round parachutes. He gifted me a set of paratrooper boots to use while skydiving…

It was a nice thought, but most of the time I’m running out a landing, not doing a PLF (Parachute Landing Fall). The boots were extremely tight around the ankles for support on landing under a round parachute. They were less than useless for jumping a ram air chute. They were in my closet for almost 20 years, before I decided it was time to make some space. Zero jumps and probably less than a few hours of wear, because they were just not comfortable, since they were designed to save your ankles landing under a T-10.

Yes, I informed my brother emphatically that I could not use that type of boot in sport skydiving, but typical of my family someone else knew better of what I was doing than I did.

The prelim report on this accident is really going to be interesting.

Some of my thoughts and not meant to be all inclusive or even remotely conclusive. Just rambling thoughts of an old aviation enthusiast, Skydiver and someone that has bailed out of an aircraft twice AND been in one crash (Beech 18). I also saw the aftermath of UAL232 back in 1989. My parents and I drove by Sioux City, IA about 4 hours after the crash occurred. Also, I grew up on the Indiana side of Louisville. Although I haven’t lived there since 1988, it pained me to see my old home area ravaged like that. Also, yes I’m old.

1. The number 1 engine did NOT depart the pylon. Photos showing the engine are sans the parts of the pylon, but the NTSB has stated that the pylon broke away from the engine as it tumbled down the runway.

2. The pylon failed AT THE WING and not at the engine. The engine mounts are designed to fail in case of catastrophic engine imbalance and the pylon wing mounts are designed to hold. However, it is the mounts at the wing that failed and caused the engine to depart.

3. Cause of the pylon failing is not known and there is not enough evidence released yet to make a guess much less a determination (not that anyone but the NTSB should be trying to determine things). Did the engine have an uncontained failure that damaged the wing mounts of the pylon? (UAL232?) OR did the pylon fail first? Would a turbine disk failure be far enough back on the pylon to damage the pylon to wing mounts?

4. The number 2 engine experienced compressor stalls due to ingesting debris from the failing number 1 engine. A fully loaded MD-11 will not get off the ground on one engine. There is video evidence of the rudder being hard over which is evidence the number 3 engine was working.

5. At least some of the lessons from AA191 were learned. The plane was wings level and nose up until it struck the ground. Videos show the port leading edge slats out. Modifications after AA191 included multiple hydraulic systems operating the slats, as well as a mechanism to physically lock the slats in the deployed position in case of hydraulic failure. So the plane could lose all 3 hydraulic systems and the slats would remain out.

6. It has been stated that the plane went through heavy maintenance. Was that a C or D check? UPS is in the middle of creating a modernization program for their MD-11 fleet, but as far as I have been able to ascertain it has not be launched yet.

7. Is this the end for the MD-11? And should it be the end?

8. Did the pylon fail right at Vr? Gyroscopic forces are at their greatest on rotation and probably the most force the pylon sees during the entire flight. Also, it was gyroscopic forces that caused the engine to come to rest on the left side of the runway.

Captain Steeeve is excellent.

Other Youtube aviation centered channels that are worth watching especially for accident information:

Blancolirio

Max Afterburner

Mentour Pilot

and his associated channel:

Mentour Now

Oh crap…

Dungeon Crawler Carl “The Inevitable Ruin” Book 7

“Fellowship of the Ring” Lord of the Rings Book 1

Frodo and Donut are fighting their way through Moria to throw Cascadia into Mt Doom… Oh and Frodo is wearing boxers with a heart print.

God Dammit Donut!

Vancouver

That what watching Stargate SG-1 multiple times has done to me.

30 year IT Professional here.

The thing about AI that most people do not understand is the sheer amount of processing power required and just how much that requirement impacts everything. Entire data centers dedicated to one thing that can require the output of a power plant and the associated cooling requirement. I believe Microsoft is in the process of reactivating Three Mile Island TMI-1 reactor. TMI-2 was destroyed in an accident in 1979.

For what? What is it actually doing that is truly worth investing those kind of resources?

That’s not even considering the financial investment. Which has resulted in tech companies taking a “throw everything against the wall and see what sticks” tactic to get it to start making money. Tactics like that usually result in a bubble where the technology is perceived to have more value that it really does. The problem with this is people won’t spend their money on something that does not return their investment. So it’s a matter of time that we have these huge data centers sitting all over the country abandoned.

I discovered SAS back in the late 80’s when I worked retail. I made a friend who worked at the shoe store that was in the same mall where I was working and she recommend them. They were the only shoe that allowed me to last 12 to 14 hours on the floor.

I would replace them every year, just because I wore them that much working 60+ hours a week.

Retail job… Never again. But SAS shoes are great.

It’s not the first time an engine has fallen off of a DC-10/MD-11.

1979 Chicago O’Hare American Airlines AA191

That particular instance was due to maintenance not following the correct procedure for mounting the engine. It caused cracks in the support pylon and it was just a matter of time. The crazy thing is the pilots did exactly what they should have done. The problem is the warning system for slat disagreement was only powered by the electrical bus supplied by the engine that just departed the aircraft. So the pilots had no idea that the slats on that side of the aircraft retracted due to damage to the hydraulic lines. So that wing complete stalled and 271 people died.

The difference with this crash is the plane was wings level until the tail hit the ground. Also in that video if you look closely the slats are out on the port wing.

I like to wear hiking shoes as my everyday shoes. My feet are EE width.

For the past several years I’ve liked Merrell Moab 2, although they have been discontinued for the Moab 3. They come in a GTX model as well.

To be perfectly honest, I have had some issues that had to be fixed with the shoe glue that comes in a red tube. After fixing the issue, which has been the sole separating from the upper, the shoe would last for some time. I get out and hike at least 4 times a week, for about 2 miles. Fortunately, I have a nice county park near my house. With that amount of wear the Moabs last me for about 3 years and then it’s just the tread that is worn smooth. My original pair, one’s I had to fix, I still use for yard work.

As far as sports shoes go, I like New Balance. I usually keep a pair of cross trainers around for those yearly times I try to take up running but utterly fail.