#Component Speaker System

[speakersarea]

Looking for the best car speakers that won't break the bank? Check out our list of the top 10 best car speakers on a budget and upgrade your ride today!

[techdriveplay]

How Can I Improve My Car's Audio System?

How Can I Improve My Car’s Audio System? Improving your car’s audio system can transform your driving experience, turning mundane commutes into enjoyable journeys filled with high-quality sound. Whether you’re a casual listener or an audiophile, there are several steps you can take to enhance your car’s audio setup. Key Statistics: 67% of car owners believe that an upgraded audio system…

[totesmag]

DIY Home Entertainment: How to Build Your Own Sound System on a Budget

In recent years, there has been a surge in the popularity of DIY home entertainment systems. As technology continues to advance, it has become easier and more cost-effective to build your own sound system at home. Not only does this give you the opportunity to customize your setup to your specific needs and preferences, but it also allows you to save money compared to purchasing a pre-made…

[olderthannetfic]

Now I'm wondering how countries like Japan and China teach literacy.

Since kanji / hanzi don't really have that much in the way of phonetic elements, they kinda have to teach them by memorization and I don't think they have many reading comprehension problems over there.

(Although both countries do have supplementary phonetic writing systems in the form of bopomofo and pinyin for China, and the kanas for Japan)

--

FAVORITE SOAPBOX TOPIC UNLOCKED!

RELEASE THE KRAKEN!

It's a little closer to teaching vocabulary than spelling, but the same kinds of principles apply: You teach the building blocks, like the traditional radicals, which aren't so different from teaching Latin and Greek roots in an English class for English speakers.

And, as a matter of fact, lots of those radicals do predict pronunciation, just not in every single case. They can also be clues to meaning, but again, not absolutely consistently. Many characters have a sound-cueing radical on one side and a meaning-cueing radical on the other. It's just that only some are still useful in the modern day, while others are more like the English word 'plumbing' where knowledge of Roman lead pipes explains why this word comes from the one for lead, but the root probably wouldn't help a kid learn the word in the first place.

One similarity to teaching phonics would be teaching students to tell very complicated and similar characters apart: you want to help a student spot all the little building blocks of the character and then spot the ones that are different, not just glance at the whole character and get a general overall vibe. If you do a whole look-based approach, too many characters are too easy to mistake for one another.

Remembering a bajillion Chinese characters is hard if you're trying to memorize them in a year and not all of elementary school, but I think people who don't read them underestimate how many component parts there are and how approachable they can be if you start by learning fundamentals, not just memorizing a few individual characters as though they have no relation to anything else.

They're actually pretty systematic, just in the way that English spelling is with its overlapping systems and historical artifacts, not in the way that highly regular Spanish spelling is.

Having taken a lot of Japanese classes, I will say that Japanese as a foreign language textbooks often do a piss poor job of this and totally do teach kanji in a sight words-y way... But my Mandarin class started with important foundational concepts that served me well in Japanese later even if I bombed out of Chinese class at the time.

Can you tell how irritated I am by all the foreign language learners who think characters are sooooo hard when, really, it's just their crappy textbook? Haha.

They're moderately hard in the way that learning a full adult spectrum of vocabulary is hard, but people do that for foreign languages all the time. The countries that use characters do tend to make sets that are smaller for certain kinds of applications, same as we have things like simple English wikipedia, but a literate adult will always know lots more, whether it's from their career in engineering or their predilection for historical romance novels.

Uh... anyway, the answer is "Bit by bit in elementary school, just like in any other country".

[haru-dipthong]

Fake-tanuki soup or Fake tanuki-soup?

連濁（れんだく; en: rendaku）is a phonological rule in japanese that makes the first voiceless consonant of a word change into a voiced consonant when used in a compound word. For example, おり ＋ かみ → おりがみ (ori + kami → origami) ("fold" + "paper" → "paperfolding") - the /k/ sound in かみ becomes a /g/ sound (which is the voiced version of a /k/ sound) by adding a voicing mark -> が.

What’s interesting about 連濁 is that native speakers can use it subconsciously as a sort of “order of operations” system for unfamiliar words, like PEMDAS or BIDMAS in maths. A classic example of this is the にせたぬきじる problem[1]. Native speakers can immediately and with confidence tell the difference in meaning between two compound words they have never heard before, despite the only difference being the voicing of a single consonant. Take the three words 偽 (にせ, meaning “fake” or “imitation”), たぬき (tanuki, the Japanese racoon dog), and 汁 (しる, meaning “soup” or “broth”). They can be combined into the following compound words: にせたぬきじる and にせだぬきじる (note the voicing mark, or dakuten, on the latter). Keep in mind, these two words do not exist in ordinary japanese - they’ve been created as part of a linguistics experiment.

You might think the meaning would be ambiguous in those compound words: is it (imitation tanuki)+soup or imitation+(tanuki soup)? Let’s imagine we’re referring to the former. First, we combine にせ＋たぬき. There’s a rule that rendaku can’t occur if there’s already a voicing mark in the second component of the compound, but we’re safe here - たぬき has no voicing mark. Therefore, it becomes にせだぬき. Then, we combine にせだぬき＋しる. Again, しる has no voicing mark in it, so we’re safe to add it in, and we get にせだぬきじる.

Conversely, let’s say we were referring to fake “tanuki-soup”. First we combine たぬき＋しる. This combines safely to たぬきじる. Then we combine にせ＋たぬきじる. But wait, the second component does already have a voicing mark, on じ! So we can’t add one to た. Therefore we end up with にせたぬきじる.

That’s a lot of thinking and linguistic hoops to jump through to make up 2 words, but here’s the thing: Japanese native speakers who have never heard these words before can instinctively deduce the difference in meaning with startling accuracy. They correctly determine the meaning of にせだぬきじる as “a broth made from imitation tanuki” and にせたぬきじる as “a fake version of a dish called ‘tanuki soup’”. Even more surprising is the research findings of Shigeto Kawahara, which show that children as young as 9 years old can consistently deduce the difference as well[2]. I think this shows how incredibly powerful the subconscious mind is at learning linguistic rules, and how bad the conscious mind is at learning them!

[enchantedanimal]

Introducing the M-V Headgear Technology System.

A Federation workers' muzzle and visor concept/headcanon (featuring Fred).

More information can be found within the following document.

A Federation Handguide to the M-V Headgear Technology System (MVHTS)

The "M-V Headgear Technology System" is made up of two main components: "Muzzles" and "Visors".

Muzzles were implemented as a safety measure. Due to incidents in the past, muzzles started to be used to prevent cases of biting. Some more common cases involved circumstances of a sudden "Polar Bear Syndrome" instance or an agitated worker. Since muzzles were introduced, cases rapidly declined and ceased to exist, and thus it became the standard and requirement for all federation workers to wear them in their daily lives to prevent any future incidents or casualties.

Visors are important in assisting workers. A transparent electronic screen on the inside allows for an overlay to be applied in real time of what they see. This allows the user to get general identifying information, statuses, and Federation notes such as warrants or warnings when looking at residents, coworkers, threats, enemies, or the environment. This also helps with training new members, as the screen shows names of individuals as well as tasks. Physically, a thick uv resistent lens provides protection from hazards, stray particles, and the sun.

When muzzles are used in combination to the visor, this allows an additional barrier of separation between the workers and the residents. Both equipment hides any indication of emotional expression by the user and prevents unnecessary relations with others, especially island residents. This is intended for physical, emotional, and mental protection of employees, as well as keeping professionalism.

Removing the M-V Headgear Technology System

If the headgear needs to be taken off, employees can enter a break room. Upon entering, a sensor in the doorway allows the locking mechanism in the back to be unlocked. The lock can then be opened, and the headgear can be removed. An attempt to leave without the gear fassened or locked will alert a superior.

Note: in recent events of employing residents (such as W0039 or "Foolish"), all workers should be more cautious of their surroundings before removing their MVHTS, even if in a break room. It's recommended that no headgear should be removed if any resident is within the building or area.

In case of emergency without easy access to a break room, users should squeeze both top and bottom buttons located on the back lock in unison for a few seconds, allowing the straps be unlocked and the device to be removed. However this method should ONLY be used in absolute emergencies. When unlocked, the headset itself will make a loud beeping noise and notify a superior.

Employees seen without their M-V headgear outside of a break room that do not have the proper clearance should be reported immediately. It should also be reported if a resident sees an employee without their headgear. Attempts to avoid being around residents while not wearing a visor, especially a muzzle, should be made at all costs as it is strictly against the rules.

While these components are highly sturdy, should any of them become heavily damaged, you should notify your nearest supervisor immediately. A temporary backup should be provided as soon as possible.

Other MVHTS Details

- In regards to WA01, aka the Census Bureau, or "Cucurucho", their muzzle is different from the others due to it's modification. A voice mod and speakers are built into it, allowing for communication with residents and fellow workers. It's also fitted with a smile design (":]") to appear more friendly and recognizable when speaking to residents. Cucurucho is the only worker to not have a visor. Do not make any reference to the appearance of their eyes in front of them.

- The only other speaking worker currently around, WS01 or "Elena", also has a muzzle fitted with a speaker and voice mod. However unlike him, she does wear a visor.

- All muzzle and visor designs are usually very fairly to each other, but as they are specially made, some are different shapes mostly depending on the form of the users face. However requests for sharper/rounder headgear are considered and can be made.

- All M-V systems of Federation workers are primarily white/light grey.

- Only the front-most "mouth" mesh is flexible enough for a straw or liquid to permiate it, allowing for drinks on the job.

- Mesh designs can vary, especially depending on the rank of the employee.

- Each lock on the back is fitted with a dim light. The color of the light differs depending on the employee/rank. For example, WC construction workers have primarily orange or yellow lights, WB workers assigned to guarding and authority have white lights, and WA workers, such as WA02, have a blue light. The higher the rank, the more likely that they may have a more unique color. Elena has a pink light and Cucurucho is an exception as they do not have a light on theirs. Lights are never red as that is reserved for indicating that the headset is unlocked or unfastened. If any workers' lights not amitting light, they should be advised immediately or be reported to a supervisor.

[tokyosmega]

the atla universe if languages existed

hey there! ever wondered what avatar would be like if the nations actually spoke different languages? me too! here's my idea of how it would go:

(set during avatar: the last airbender, might add more during korra times another day)

quick disclaimer: i am an american who speaks american english and conversational france french. all of my language knowledge comes from youtube or school. this is just a silly little headcanon i needed to write down.

WATER

Within the water tribe’s language system, there are two main languages: Northern Water and Southern Water. Northern Water is spoken by the Northern Water tribe and Southern Water is spoken by the Southern Water tribe. Despite having similar names, the two languages are very different. When the Water tribes lived as one on the water lionturtle, they all spoke the same language (which we will call Olde Water), but after separation, they evolved independently. Think of the relationships between the two water languages as the relationship between French and Spanish. Their words can be similar (sol/soleil, luna/lune) because they share roots from Latin (or in this case, Olde Water). Northern Water and Southern Water share roots to the point where a Southern speaker and a Northern speaker would not be able to understand each other but could probably pick out a few key words from their speech. Similar words are things that are native to their area, while less common things that did not exist/were unknown during Olde Water times have differing words (the word for “polarbear-dog” is probably similar in both languages, but the word for “badgermole” is probably different). If the tribes met often for peace/community reasons (perhaps annually), then both languages would contain loanwords from the other tribe. For example, if sea prunes are a Southern Water tribe staple, then the word for “sea prunes” in the North is probably the same as it is in the South. Neither language has any sort of written component- it is completely oral.

Another, more niche language also exists within the Water language family, and that is Foggy Swamp. This language also originates from Olde Water, but has a great amount of Earth influence, since the swamp itself is in the Earth Kingdom (influence specifically from Omashu). Someone who speaks Olde Water would understand Foggy Swamp to the extent that someone who speaks American English would understand Pidgin English (that is, they would have to focus intently and would be able to get the jist of their speech). A Northern Water or Southern Water speaker would not be able to understand them at all, since their languages have developed so drastically from Olde Water. However, one could trace roots of words in Foggy Swamp back to Northern or Southern Water. An Earth speaker would not understand them at all either, but would be able to trace back loanwords and modern terminology (the word for “swamp” or “cat-gator”, for example, would be a lot more similar to Earth than it would be to Northern Water or Southern Water). Foggy Swamp also does not have a writing system.

EARTH

Because it covers such a vast space, the people of the Earth kingdom used to be incredibly linguistically diverse, with almost every city speaking differently than the next. During Kyoshi’s reign, Chin the Conqueror took over most of the kingdom and standardized the writing system (similar to the Qin dynasty in China), and therefore heavily influenced spoken language in the Earth kingdom. As an after-effect, Common Earth, also known as simply Earth, is the most widely spoken language in the world, to a similar extent as English or Mandarin Chinese. It is taught as a second language in every nation and it is hard to find a city where there are no Earth speakers. Everyone in the Earth kingdom speaks or understands Earth. Omashu Earth is an accent that is spoken primarily in the city of Omashu, and has tonal differences from Earth, similar to the difference between New York English and standard American English. Aside from Omashu Earth, the other areas of the Earth kingdom that were taken over by Chin do not have distinct accents. There are some slight variances, especially in the Southern islands between the Air temples, but all speakers of Common Earth can understand each other perfectly. Common Earth has a stable writing system that does not vary.

Despite Chin’s attempt to standardize language within the Earth kingdom, the places he did not conquer held fast to their respective languages. Ba Sing Se Earth, which can also be called Upper Ba Sing Se Earth, is the language that differs the most from Common Earth due to Ba Sing Se’s impenetrable walls cutting them off from the rest of the kingdom. Since both languages are derived from Olde Earth, they share similar writing systems, but neither language can understand each other (similar to the relationship between Cantonese and Mandarin). The walls between the Upper and Lower ring also created Lower Ba Sing Se Earth, where grammar is more simplified, due to the hasty lifestyle of a lower-class worker. Both Upper and Lower Ba Sing Se Earth speakers can understand each other, but Upper Ba Sing Se speakers might not be able to understand Lower slang. Their writing system is exactly the same. Kyoshi Earth is spoken solely on Kyoshi island, and is very similar to the former language of the people of Yokoya. It is not understandable to any other Earth speakers and functions similarly to the relationship between Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, with a different yet similar alphabet to Common Earth. The Si Wong tribes, who inhabit the Si Wong desert, speak various independent languages, but are collectively known as Si Wong Earth. Their languages have many loanwords from Common Earth due to trade. Their written language is syllabic and simple, similar to Cuneiform. 

FIRE

Most of the Fire nation speaks the same language, but there are three main dialects within the Fire Nation language system. The most commonly spoken dialect is aptly named Fire, but is also known as Common Fire. This language is spoken within the Fire nation capital, Caldera, but is mainly used within the greater land mass of the Fire nation. It evolved from Olde Fire and is the most basic form of Fire nation speech. The most similar dialect is more of an accent with some different slang terms and is known as High Fire. It is spoken by the citizens of Caldera, especially the nobles. It is completely understandable to those who know Common Fire and vice versa. The relationship between the two languages is similar to the relationship between Canadian French and Quebecois. The main difference between High Fire and Common fire is pronunciation of words and tonal patterns within sentences and phrases. The last dialects all get looped into one group and are collectively known as Provincial Fire. Provincial Fire is spoken on the outskirts of the mainland and into the chain of islands off of the Fire nation. It varies greatly depending on what island or area of the mainland it is spoken in and has differences from Common Fire that are similar to Korean’s differences from its provincial dialects (speech pattern and tones, different slang terms). The further out one gets from Caldera, the stronger the dialect. Written language within the Fire nation is the same across all of the dialects and characters are similar to Mandarin Chinese as they are pictorial and syllabic (from canon). 

The Sun Warriors are the only ethnic group of the Fire nation that speaks anything other than Common Fire. The Sun Warriors speak Sun Fire, which originates from Olde Fire as well, but has changed greatly since it was spoken within such a small group of people. Someone who speaks Common Fire would not understand Sun Fire at all, but could probably pick out a few words that have similar roots to Common Fire. Sun Fire has two written languages- one is reserved for spiritual leaders and spiritual texts, while the other is used by all people. Visually, it is similar to the differences between Japanese’s Kanji and Kana writing systems, where one is more simplified and one is more traditional. Spiritual written Sun Fire is more similar to written Common Fire. 

AIR

The people of the Air nation only have one language: Air. Due to a high need of proper communication, as well as people constantly moving from temple to temple, or growing up at one and working at the other, Air nomads developed only a single language from Olde Air. Air nomads have a robust writing system to allow writing of incredibly complex ideas and air nomad journeys. Most nomads learn multiple other languages as they age, so they can succeed no matter where they find themselves in the world. Due to the destruction of the Air temples, Air is almost a completely lost language. Remaining speakers include Aang and his children, as well as a few Earth kingdom elders who learned the language from friends and passed it down to their children.

MISC.

Cities born out of the 100-year war, like Cranefish Town (Republic City), are another story. The Fire nation mandated that all colonies only speak Common Fire in hopes of destroying the culture of the city, but despite that, a hybrid language developed: Earthen Fire. To a non-speaker, Earthen Fire sounds like Common Fire, but the grammar structure is very Earth based (a Fire speaker can understand Earthen Fire in the way that a Dutch speaker can understand Afrikaans). It also incorporates many loanwords from Earth. The writing system involves the exact same characters as written Earth, so it almost sounds like Fire spoken with an Earth accent. 

[niararn]

「 PAGE 01 」 Acquaring instead of learning a language

―My old study method. Priorities. Restructure

12/03/2024 | Mexico

It’s been some time since I started studying languages consistently, and a few months ago, I decided to share my experience with them.

I want to be as honest as possible; in recent weeks, I've encountered unexpected moments that have caused me to leave aside my studies. However, during this time, I've come across valuable information on how to “learn” languages and study methods. It feels like a reset in many aspects of my life, including my approach to studying. I now have a clearer understanding than before, and in this entry, I’m going to share what I’ve discovered and how I plan to restructure my language studies.

1. My old study method

As you've read in my first post, I've decided to learn English, Korean, and Portuguese (my mother tongue is Spanish). Since English is the language I'm most fluent in, I've chosen to write my blog in this language.

When I started studying, I came across someone on the internet who was learning four languages simultaneously, o I thought It can be possible to do that too, and I tried. Therefore, last year, I set a goal to learn Korean and Portuguese alongside English. I even created my own Language Notion Hub to organize my studies:

The page is in Spanish, but I’ll quickly explain my system.

I chose to study one language every day for 2 hours:

These were my activitites for each day:

As you can see, there are A LOT of activities each day. And as you can possibly imagine, it didn’t work out.

Every day I opened my Notion, set my Pomodoro timer, and started to study. I always felt rushed to finish each task, especially if I got stuck in some point of the theory and saw that time was almost up. Most days, I didn’t complete all the activities, and I felt like I wasn’t reaching my goals.

2. Priorities

Starting this year, and aiming to once again achieve my language goals, I was initially planning to study in a similar way as last year. But then I asked myself, how can I expect different results if I'm doing the same things?

During the pause I took last month, and with all the new information I stumbled upon, I realized that my method wasn’t the most efficient. If I want a different result, I need to change my approach. If I want to become a polyglot and not only know a little of this language and a little of that other, I need to choose which language will receive my time and efforts for the next few months to achieve a stronger result.

I spend a significant amount of my time consuming content in English. Writing here on Tumblr offers me a valuable opportunity to study by organizing my thoughts in English. Therefore, since it's the language I use most often every day and is already ingrained in my mind, I've chosen Portuguese to be the main focus of my life for the next months.

An important aspect of setting priorities is determining when and what I'll be studying. Up to now, I've primarily focused on grammar and vocabulary, considering them essential components of language learning. However, my perspective has shifted after discovering the insights shared by Steve Kaufmann and Jeff Brown.

I've watched several videos on Steve Kaufmann's YouTube Channel. His focus is on self-study, and his tips, such as 'don’t study grammar' and 'don’t try to dominate the basics', made me realize why I didn’t achieve the results I wanted.

On the other hand, Jeff Brown is a teacher, and his method revolves around learning from and with native speakers. He emphasizes the importance of acquiring the language rather than just learning it

Both of them advocate for exposing yourself to a lot of comprehensible input, such as listening and reading content in your target language before you start speaking, writing, or studying grammar. They say that our brains are capable of understanding grammar patterns naturally, so there's no need to focus solely on grammar; you'll naturally realize it through extensive reading and listening. They both endorse the TPRS (Teaching Proficiency Through Reading and Storytelling) method, which involves learning through stories.

The key is to enjoy the learning process, even if you're just starting out and don't understand everything at first. With consistent practice and exposure to the language every day, you'll gradually improve and become fluent.

While browsing YouTube I stumbled upon a video about ‘learning windows’ and according to Miguel and his studies in Neuroscience, we have two important times of day:

☀️ Three hours after waking up in the morning

🌙 Three hours before going to bed at night

Additionally, other YouTube creators have helped me restructure my language-learning journey, such as Salma Chavana, Anna Lenkovska, İclal and Jovanna Reyes.

3. Restructure

With all this information I got everything I needed to put in practice my new journey acquaring Portuguese! Let’s start by outlining when I’m going to study:

I've decided to allocate 2 hours each day, dividing it into 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour at night.

I'll be studying every day for 6 days a week, resulting in a total of 12 hours per week.

Taking into account the advice I received from all the people mentioned before, here's my new activities calendar:

To immerse myself more in the language, I'm planning to make some changes and carry out most of my regular activities in Portuguese, including:

Listening to music

Changing my phone's language settings

Searching for recipes, tutorials, questions, and general doubts on the internet

Well, that’s all for now. It feels like a good reset, and I'm really excited to start my journey of acquiring Portuguese and share my progress with you!

See you next week, have a really nice day :)

Adiós! Tchau! Bye, bye! 안녕!

🧸 Mariana | Polyglot Diaries

[fuzzkaizer]

Systech - overdrive

"Have you ever played a pedal that stuck with you forever, even though you knew in your heart it was totally weird, and nobody famous ever used it? For me, yeah, tons of them. But if I had to pick one that best fit these criteria, this one would be it. This is the Systech Overdrive. Before we dive in, let’s talk a little about where it was made.

There was a time when, of all places, Kalamazoo Michigan was an epicenter for musically related things. Apart from being a city referenced by Looney Tunes and the hometown of Glen Miller’s gal, Kalamazoo had the Sound Factory, which was a collective of sorts that featured guitar luthiery, a recording studio and electronic gear manufacturing. The facility sat front and center on Kalamazoo Avenue, smack dab in the middle of the city, and attracted visitors from all over.

Of course, if it was some random outpost of nobodies, the name wouldn’t carry any weight. However, the Sound Factory was shored up by three relatively heavy hitters of the early ‘70s. One such was Greg Hochman, Keith Emerson’s Moog technician. He was joined by Bryce Roberson, otherwise known as Uncle Dirty of Chess Records fame and a relatively unknown person named Charlie Wicks. If you’ve been reading this column for a while, you’ll recognize him as the man behind ProCo—the Ratfather.

Together, these three developed Systech, which itself was short for “Systems & Technology in Music, Inc.” That mouthful of a company was responsible for the Harmonic Energizer, a little-known yet highly influential effect that provided a deep filtered sound in addition to some crunchy drive and sharp resonant peaks. You might know it as one of Frank Zappa’s signature pieces. And while this Overdrive effect wasn’t that, it was derived from the Harmonic Energizer and shares a handful of characteristics.

Basically, if dialed in just the right way, the Harmonic Energizer will make short work of an entire speaker cabinet and anyone in the audience. This is because it was designed to provide a staggering gain of 55dB, enough to cause serious damage to your gear or hearing. The Overdrive was created to get some of those tones at non speaker-shredding levels.

If you’re thinking this unit is some kind of proto-Tube Screamer, think again. Because this was the early ‘70s, nobody had really decided exactly what “overdrive” meant. And though Maestro (coincidentally, also in Kalamazoo) had created one of almost every effect under the sun, pedal fever wasn’t quite here just yet, so Systech was essentially “winging it.” With that said, the Overdrive is actually a pretty aggressive fuzz sound. And to that end, the fuzz circuit is pretty unique. The entire affair contains two transistors—one a JFET input buffer—and one dual op-amp with a handful of other components. Even the topology is relatively simple, but the simplicity ends with the schematic.

The EQ control works unlike pretty much any EQ control you’ve ever fiddled with; as much an EQ as the whole unit is an overdrive. Instead of a simple tonal adjustment, the EQ control is actually an active bandpass filter, in the same family as a wah circuit. With a simple twist of a knob, you can adjust this filter from 122Hz to 900Hz. As you might imagine, the EQ control sounds relatively cocked-wah-esque, but the sound is much more aggressive than any wah on the market before or since. The reason has to do with the Q factor, essentially a bandwidth control. A wah’s Q is set by its 33K resistor and is much wider than that of the Overdrive, so the tone is a little more rounded. While a wah’s filter is a rubber mallet, the Systech Overdrive’s is a tack hammer. While the sound is curious, the thing really comes to life when you crank the EQ control, as it gives you a nice punch in the mids. You lose a little definition when you get to the bottom third, but man is it fun to play with.

“Distortion” is just what it sounds like, but curiously enough, “Gain” is about as close to a volume knob as you’re going to get. Much like Distortion, if you turn it all the way down it kills the entire signal, but it sits behind a final gain stage. If you have the guts to crank both Distortion and Gain, you’re richly rewarded with gobs of gooey sustain, but the flipside is that your amp is likely screaming “uncle.” Worth it? Your call. I say go for it.

Many people say Zappa used a Systech Overdrive, but alas, he did not. However, when you play it, you can definitely see the similarities between this unit and the fabled Harmonic Energizer. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s close enough for rock and roll."

cred: catalinbread.com/blogs/kulas-cabinet/systech-overdrive

[viksalos]

The Mycelial Networking Project - A New Kind of Employment Structure for Neurodivergent Talent

Hey y'all--some of you might remember I used to be fairly active on here during my final few years of grad school, and then I nearly burned out of my PhD, found out I was autistic, and subsequently drastically reduced the time I spent on tumblr. Well, good news: I'm ok, I recovered from burnout, graduated, and discovered something surprising both in my PhD research and during my burnout recovery--cooperating with other people who are on the same wavelength as you is both more efficient for knowledge transfer in a variety of expert fields, and also socially healthier than struggling alone! Whoda thunk!

With that in mind, myself and Mykola Bilokonsky (creator of r/AutismTranslated, software developer, and Autistic coach) have been working for the past few months on the Mycelial Institute (at mycelial.institute in your address bar--I haven't linked it because tumblr search suppresses outside links, oops)

The Mycelial Institute is attempting to create a new kind of workplace that’s optimized for neurodivergent people. If you follow me on here or found this post from the tags, chances are you already know there are so many autistic, ADHD and other neurodivergent folks who have so much to give but who struggle to do so in a traditional employment context. We can be some of the most passionate experts you know and we'll still be languishing in unemployment because we're not able to do things the way everyone else does - and as a result everyone is worse off.

What if there was a different kind of employment available? One that:

Was completely worker owned, without any kind of profit-taking or power hierarchy orthogonal to the specific goals of the organization?

Understood that there are many different ways to contribute, and that some people can be profoundly valuable in some of those ways while struggling with others - and so decoupled them!

Accepted the fact that disability isn’t a fringe experience to marginalize but a core component of most peoples’ lives - especially during the age of Covid - and so prioritized accommodation?

Embraced non-punitive accountability - we have goals, we have challenges. Sometimes we can’t meet a goal because of a challenge. Instead of that being a source of shame, how can we make that an accepted learning experience and build in additional supports?

If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, please visit mycelial.institute. We are currently very early in this process, and are actively seeking collaborators. Currently we’re trying to build a diverse leadership team, meaning we want to find folks across as many marginalized identities as we can to help us make foundational decisions. This includes disability - we want non-speakers and intellectually disabled leadership as well. (You don’t need to be interested in a leadership role to fill out our submission form, we’re gathering a pool of folks in general.)

More info below the readmore:

We are the 🍄Mycelial Institute because we are inspired by the decompositional half of ecologies that often goes overlooked. Rather than competing for winner-take-all dominance, mushrooms accept that everything dies eventually and simply wait their turn to build large distributed networks that break down the waste of the broader system, giving rise to new forms of life. No ecosystem is complete without this component, and our economics generally fail to acknowledge this meaningfully.

A “Mycelial Network” here is a new kind of collective workplace. The corporate structure is such that there’s a board that steers the organization, made up of members. The organization seeks paying work from large clients who have needs that can be served by our diverse and specialized membership - but it’s not really important what kind of work that is, as long as it’s ethical. So we may do R&D for one client, engineering for another client, data analysis for another client, whatever - as long as we have folks in our membership who have things to contribute, we can match member to tasks.

The way this is structured is something we’re still working on, but we are thinking it’s likely going to be something like a Social Purpose Corporation or an L3C. The point is, we seek high paying work and exceed the expectations of our clients with specialist output, but those specialists are supported by other members as they carry out their tasks.

So there’s room in this organization for folks with e.g. a deep special interest in esoteric engineering practices, but there’s also room for those folks who derive deep satisfaction from filling out paperwork, or doing compliance or QA oversight, etc. We are a collective, and that means that everyone’s time is valuable and we sink or swim collectively.

Members are paid based on the decisions made by the board, but we’re leaning towards a flatter pay scale where folks are paid for contributing period, rather than treating some peoples’ time as more valuable than others, because we recognize that it requires a collective effort to get the work done and keep the client happy.

The organization itself may choose to keep a portion of proceeds to pay into a “Subsidy Pool”, which can be used to pay members to provide services to other members who couldn’t otherwise afford them. But nobody is getting a cut just for investing or anything like that, this institution doesn’t exist to enrich founders, it exists to cast a wide net of support for members of the served community.

(So far everyone involved is US-based and this will likely be a US-based organization, at least to start. That said, we don’t yet know what we don’t know, and welcome collaborators from other parts of the world at least for early days when we’re not making money etc yet anyway.

Just, we’re going to be figuring it out as we go along.)

-> mycelial.institute <-

[crypticsketchpad]

ok u know what. *organics your robots*

spec bio wubbox concepts because why not! lore and rambling under the cut:

The Wubbox is an ancient species of monster dating back to the Dawn of Fire. Presumed to be extinct post-cataclysm, several caves full of dormant eggs have been found in the present day, and the species has once again become widespread in monster society. Loud, powerful, and somewhat territorial, they served as guardians of pre-contemporary monster tribes, and were regarded as gifts from the Celestials.

pic explanations

1. sketch of an adult wubbox, with different textures/components labeled. they are mostly covered in armor-like scales that are shed periodically; these can be replaced/upgraded by artificial parts, and are often repurposed into armor and instruments by other monsters.

2. sketch of a wubbox hatchling + notes:

- Baby teeth are sparse but very sharp, can and will eat almost anything (young wubboxes are notoriously ravenous, which lead to the myth that they eat other monsters)

- Protective cap over chest “speaker” (see image 4), falls off after a few weeks

- Long, fluffy fur for retaining warmth

- Simple armor plates that are shed several times while growing; initial set is made of eggshell parts that fuse onto the hatchling’s body

- Bioluminescent markings do not appear until adulthood

3. “blushing” wubbox; when flustered, their under-eye plates retract slightly, exposing patches of fur on their cheeks. these patches, like the rest of their fur, is bioluminescent, and is similar in texture to fiber optic lights

4. rough respiratory system diagram. they have very large lungs with a sort of dual output system; when speaking or “singing”, air passes through their larynx and into a hollow cavity in their chest covered by an eardrum-like membrane that functions like a speaker. this amplifies their voice and creates their signature booming roars.

5. side view of a wubbox’s head + skull concept. their mouths are full of large, flat teeth, with a diet consisting of vegetation and processed foods. 

6. earth epic concept. in this scenario, “epic” wubboxes are the result of eggs being stored in certain environments for prolonged periods of time and developing specific adaptations for said environments; for example, an earth epic would be created by keeping an egg buried in volcanic ash, in/near magma, or just in a high temperature environment.

an earth epic’s horns are hollow tubes developed from their eye plates, which grow out to cover their nostrils completely; these horns are the output of a built-in air purification function in its respiratory system that filters the ash and smoke it breathes in and ejects the contaminants in mist clouds.

7. air epic concept + notes

- Large eyes and angled under-eye plates

- Wingtips are notched like an eagle’s (air epics are very fast and agile fliers, being smaller and more lightweight than others of their species)

- “Nostrils”/air output valves on their wrists; purpose unknown (these are mainly used to emit train whistle-like shrieks for communication, but why they exist is a mystery)

- Body armor plates are replaced by smaller, feather-like scales

8. lol bald eagle

extra note bc i haven’t designed the rare versions yet: “rare” wubboxes are the result of experimentation on a common individual in an effort to “improve” the species for the modern age; all current rares are clones of the first successful specimen

[max1461]

Birds aren't dinosaurs (Aves are a subset of Dinosauria, but these are not synonyms of the former), but whales are fish and bats are birds

No, I think this position is weak.

Let me began by setting the scope of the debate here, as I see it. A question like "are birds dinosaurs?" has several distinct possible senses, and we should make clear which one we're discussing.

The first, and the simplest, is a substantive question about biology: assuming some fixed semantics for the term "bird", and some fixed semantics for the term "dinosaur", is the former a subset of the latter? This is obviously the most interesting and important sense of the question, but it is not the one we are concerned with here. It is also settled: given that the phylogeny of Aves with respect to Dinosauria is known, for any reasonable sense of "birds" and "dinosaurs" that you fix, the answer will be determined. What we debate here is thus not in any sense the biology of birds and dinosaurs.

The next possible sense is as a terminological question about some formal system of classification in biology: according to such-and-such classification scheme, are the "birds" a subclass of the "dinosaurs"? This is a question perhaps of niche interest to biologists working with a given classification scheme, but is again not of so much interest to us (and you are right to implicitly distinguish it in your anon from the question we are truly trying to get at, by using terms such as Aves and Dinosauria as you have).

Next is a lexicographical question: in the actual usage of English speakers, is the term "birds" used to refer to a subset of those things referred to by the term "dinosaurs"? The answer to this question will of course vary by individual and may have an interesting sociolinguistic dimension. For the average English speaker the answer is of course "no", but perhaps in some subcultures of paleontology enthusiasts the answer is "yes". I bet you could publish an interesting linguistics paper on semantic drift of everyday words as mediated by "jargonic" senses of those same words. But, again, this is not the question we are interested in here.

The final possible sense of the question "are birds dinosaurs?" is a kind of pseudo-normative one. "Is it Correct to call birds dinosaurs?". This is the same type of question as "are trans women women?", and answers to it have the same form. It is, in some sense, thick; there is a normative component difficult to disentangle from a descriptive one. It is this question that I am concerned with, and it is within this scope that I assert "birds are dinosaurs but people are not fish".

On this pseudo-normative question, there are several naive positions that I see quite often. One is yours, which I would call a "vulgar intuitionist" one. It asserts that in everyday language, it is Correct to classify animals by naive or superficial similarity, as was done for most of history. Often, defenses of this position rest on appeals to a kind of populist or democratic impulse. But I personally think it's a rather unsophisticated viewpoint.

The other commonly cited position is what I would call a "vulgar scientist" one, which asserts that the Correct way to classify animals is precisely that which conforms to the formal system of taxonomic classification used in biology. As stated this is actually ill-defined, because there is no singular formal system of classification used in biology. But such subtleties are not usually appreciated by advocates of vulgar scientism about words for creatures. This is analogous to the vulgar scientism which asserts that gender must be defined according to one's chromosomes.

Finally, there is a playful position, which I mostly see from biology enthusiasts, that I might term "absolute monophyleticism". This position asserts, more or less, that all everyday terms for classes of organisms should be extended to monophyletic groups (i.e. they should be taken to represent the smallest clade containing all organisms referred to by the naive term), and that this extended usage is Correct. This is the viewpoint that gets you "humans are fish". I admit that I think this is fun, and I'm sympathetic to it, but I also understand why people find it a bit twee and reject it.

My position here is somewhat subtler. First of all, I should note that I don't believe in the concept of Correct usage in any ontological sense; I am a nihilist about linguistic correctness as such (this roughly the philosophical content in the position commonly described as "linguistic descriptivism", which I endorse). But, I believe that something which looks a bit like linguistic correctness often arises as an emergent property of ethics and/or aesthetics, to whatever degree we are willing to indulge it. Cf. my belief in referring to people by their preferred pronouns. Sometimes this emergent correctness has greater normative force (as in the pronoun case), and sometimes it is weaker (as in the birds/dinosaurs case). But that's ok, because we are here to have fun, and so the weakness of the normative force is no obstacle. Though the issue is not of any particular importance, I am very inclined to say "no, birds really are dinosaurs, I'm not just being twee".

I think that in cases like these, "correct" usage arises out of a kind of dialectic between (at least) the several naive positions I articulated above. Formal systems of biological classification should have some influence, and popular usage should have some, and a certain sense of aesthetics or joie de vivre or free-spiritedness should have some. It would be very silly to call birds dinosaurs just because it is fun to say that dinosaurs are still alive, just because that sounds cool. In particular, it would also be self-defeating. If we are redefining the term "dinosaur" just to make it true that "dinosaurs are still alive", then "dinosaur" ceases to be something which would be cool to be still alive. But if, on other grounds, the argument that birds are dinosaurs is very reasonable—in other words if it is not pure fancy to say "birds are dinosaurs", but expresses some genuine truth—why not allow ourselves to say it? Why not set aside our stuffiness or, on the other extreme, our ironic detachment, and allow ourselves to put front and center that truth precisely because it is a truth that pleases us? The argument that we shouldn't appears dismal and joyless to me.

Thus, humans are not fish. But there really is a lot of truth in "birds are dinosaurs". The exclusion of Aves from Dinosauria is quite arbitrary on biological grounds, and I contend far more arbitrary than its inclusion (and thus the interpretation of Dinosauria as a clade) would be. It is frankly and straightforwardly more natural, given the perspective afforded to us by our biological knowledge, to call birds dinosaurs. And so what is holding us back? Nothing but tradition, the fact that the meaning of "dinosaur" which we all grew up with does not include birds. Appeal to tradition is a fine ground on which to support a particular usage of a word—the consistency in the meaning of words is, after all, what allows us to communicate in the first place—but in light of the biological "situation on the ground", I find it no stronger an argument than to say straightforwardly that the world would be a bit more vibrant a place if we let ourselves call birds dinosaurs, if we let ourselves internalize the truth in the claim that birds are dinosaurs, and on these grounds I believe it is correct to call birds dinosaurs.

[mama-qwerty]

Robo Knuckles

Okay, a bit of discord writing. Something something, Knuckles is either turned into a robot, or his entire personality and everything that makes him who he is is downloaded into one. Think Metal Sonic, but in this case the bot kinda IS Knuckles. In a way.

I don't remember if we said this was by Eggman, but I don't think it was. Some other group of scientists or something. I dunno.

ANYWAY, this takes place years and years in the future, when Silver finds the long abandoned base where Robo-Knux is still living, his protective and guardian instincts still driving him.

This was started (as a number of these things usually are) by @nights-nonsensical-ramblings, and then I took it over because my brain went GIMME GIMME. I've noted the different places that Night contributed.

Night

As soon as Silver starts fixing up the old base the robot starts to assist. On closer inspection he can see that the robot has been trying to keep this place maintained, but it’s been a losing battle. The stubborn loyalty to his home reminds Silver of the original Knuckles, and he can’t help but feel deja vu from when he’s watched Knuckles work on Angel Island.

But that’s for another day. He still needs to help this poor abandoned robot and he promises he’ll return with more supplies to help fix the base tomorrow.

And for the first time in many many years a promise of fixing is kept.

Me

As they work together to get the place semi-functional again, the robot seems to be more eager to help. He's often standing at the front, waiting for Silver to come back. He doesn't speak, and Silver can't figure out if it's because his audio circuits are damaged, or if he simply can't.

Memories of Metal Sonic flicker through his mind, but Silver dismisses them quickly. This robot doesn't seem to have any ill intent. He actually does seem to be very much like the Knuckles he remembers.

Over time systems are brought back online. Lights flicker to life. Computers long dead blink awake. Silver isn't as good at technology as Tails was, but he can manage. He flicks through various programs, most of which are of no use or long since defunct. Until he finds the one pertaining to the robotic guardian.

Night

The robot stands beside him as he opens it, watching and observing him as he often does when there’s no task to be done. Silver found it creepy at first, but the robot’s gaze seemed oddly soft, like he was both curious and keeping a watchful eye over him.

Me

A lot of the files are corrupted. Silver can't tell the origin of the metal being next to him, but ultimately decides it didn't really matter. He was here now, what point was there to discovering how he'd come to be? The hedgehog decides to search for diagnostics and schematics instead, trying to make sure his new friend is functioning properly.

It's slow going. Silver isn't really technically inclined, and he needs the robot's help to decipher what a lot of the symbols and labels mean. Through trial and error they slowly begin repairing the metal guardian. Fixing some mobility glitches, patching a few frayed wires. They work for days on what appears to be a vocal speaker. Silver nearly fries the robot's ocular input sensors as he attempts to access the necessary components, and that scares the hedgehog so much he backs off, not wanting to do anything more.

Silver's retreated to the far end of the room, arms hugged around himself. What was he doing?? He wasn't Tails, he didn't know anything about machines, this robot trusted him and he'd nearly caused unfixable damage! He should go. Why was he here anyway? This place didn't exactly seem to be a threat, it wasn't useful to keeping the rest of the world safe. Why was he wasting so much time here? Just because this robot looked like someone he used to know?

Heavy footsteps behind him, drawing closer. He turned, and found the robot echidna mere feet from him. His singular functioning LED eye—the one Silver almost damaged—flickered softly as it locked with Silver's own.

"I don't know what I'm doing," Silver said, and he wasn't sure why he spoke aloud. He wasn't even sure if the robot could hear or understand him. "I don't want to hur—damage you any more than you already are."

The echidna-bot stared for a long moment, before reaching forward and taking gentle hold of Silver's wrist. The bot pulled Silver back to the computer terminal, gesturing to continue.

Silver hesitated. The robot stared, tilting its head toward the console. When the hedgehog still didn't move, the bot reached forward and turned him more square before the computer, and gave a little shove.

A little smile curled Silver's lips. It didn't just look like Knuckles. It seemed to have the same impatience, too.

"You sure?" His voice was soft, with a hint of shake. He really didn't want to mess anything else up. "I might make things worse."

The robot gave a curt nod, before pointing with its large metal mitt.

Silver heaved a sigh, before turning back toward the computer. "Okay. Let's do this."

Hours later. Through careful examination, meticulous comparing the picture on the monitor with the innards of the robot, and more than one near panic attack, Silver worked to repair the metal being.

They'd searched through drawers and cabinets, and managed to find a replacement LED for his . . . its right eye. It was bright green instead of violet, but it worked. The bot gave him a thumbs up when it flickered online.

The voice box was more intricate, and the two had argued over the design. Silver managed to remove what he thought was the speaker, but the robot kept gesturing toward the monitor, pointing at a different area.

"That's in your back, why would your voice box be there?"

The robot pointed almost angrily.

"I see it but that doesn't look like what we need!"

More pointing. A loud whirring sound emanated from its chest. It sounded almost like a growl.

"I don't think that's . . . ugh FINE. I'll check it out."

The bot nodded and turned to allow Silver access. The hedgehog was only doing this to show this stubborn bot that this wasn't . . .

Well, damn.

"You were right."

Silver pulled around the little device the robot had pointed to, and it did better match the schematics of the vocal emulator. The robot held its head up a little, and Silver could imagine Knuckles' smug little smile.

"Yeah, yeah. Finding it is one thing. Fixing it is something else."

It took a long time. Days. The wires were so fine, and the innards so delicate, Silver used his psychokinesis to maneuver around inside it, and even that was painstakingly slow.

But eventually it seemed back to functional order. He reinstalled it, triple checking that everything was connected properly before attaching the last wire. Once done, he stood back, brow furrowed in concern.

"Okay. Try to boot it up. Or whatever you call it."

The robot turned to face him, and its LED eyes flickered slightly as it accessed the repaired component. At first there was nothing, and Silver thought he may have either messed it up, or it had been damaged beyond repair. But then a loud, high-pitched whine split the air, and he slapped his hands over his ears.

The whine cut off, replaced with static. The robot beat its chest with a fist.

"zzzz . . . st-- . . . --pid thi-- . . ."

Another solid pound, and something clicked inside it.

". . . did it work?"

Silver's eyes went wide. His hands dropped to his sides and he stared at the robot.

It didn't just look like Knuckles. It didn't just act like Knuckles.

It sounded like Knuckles, too.

[o-craven-canto]

Ideas for the worst possible language:

Vast phonemic inventory including clicks, compound tones, linguolabial consonants, at least four types of trill, and at least three levels of vowel length. Phonotactics allowing for extremely complex consonant clusters but also barring common sounds from coming into contact, forcing weird shifts or epenthesis. Sounds and tones change according to their surroundings in irregular ways.

Extremely complex fusive inflection, with multiple obscure categories like evidentiality or mirativity. The inflection unpredictably uses prefixes, suffixes, infixes, circumfixes, ablauts, and tone shifts; the affixes are arbitrary and re-used over and over, creating ambiguity. Verbs and pronouns have multiple layers of deferentiality based on hard-to-find out features of speaker, listener, and possibly audience. Multiple noun classes, ostensibly based on features like animacy and physical appearance, but used very irregularly (e.g. a class for inanimate rigid cylindrical objects that arbitrarily includes cats). Gender system based on an ad-hoc theory of sexuality crafted to annoy people of every possible socio-political persuasion.

Word order is very rigid for every type of utterance, but changes between types (e.g. plain statements are OXVS, questions are XOVS, contradictory statements are SVOVX, etc.), and there is no difference in utterance types besides word order. All agreement is crammed into a few pronoun-like words that can only be created if the full sentence is planned out in the speaker's head, and change completely in form if any argument is added or swapped. Each personal pronoun can only be used once per conversation, and afterward must be replaced by increasingly wordy expressions.

The writing is based on Tangut-like complex semagrams, of which many of the most common ones differ only in the orientation of a very small stroke. They include phonetic components that almost, but not quite, match the actual pronounciation of words. Some roots and affixes must instead be written in phonemic characters, which use arbitrary digraphs and trigraphs to write common sounds (imagine /k/ is spelled @, /s/ is spelled $, and /m/ is spelled @$). Several of the most common words, including at least one 2nd person pronoun, sound almost exactly like horrible slurs in English. Despite the enormous potential inventory of syllables, only about 200 are actually used, producing an enormous amount of homophones, most of which are not actually differentiated by the semagrams.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

Dynaco Repair Post No. 6: The Glow Renewed

Tuesday evening, 12-26-23

I was completely caught off guard by the box by the front door when I got back from Bunny Duty/Safeway/Post Office errands today. Things are supposed to be delivered starting tomorrow, three different packages, but nothing was scheduled to come today.

Busted out in a big grin as soon as I saw it was from my bud in SC: The EL34s got here two days early! So...I was completely (and delightedly) doing something much different this evening than I had planned!

In the box were five tubes, all of them "good spares" I had personally pulled out of working ST70s I had. I'd de-tubed them before I sold them on eBay. They went to afore-mentioned friend who was going to use them in HIS Dynaco, but hadn't yet. He sent 'em back to me, four of the square-bottled Mullards (three of 'em original Dynaco-branded actual Mullards), and one "Winged C" (the Russian iteration), and a JJ as a spare. These had been in one of the systems I'd set up for ANOTHER of our buddies (my bestie who died in 2021). Old, but good, solid tubes with lots of life left in 'em.

The 5AR4 I have is the original one. The silvering at the top is almost non-existent. It's a US-made Mullard clone:

Gorgeous, ain't it?

SO...I got the ST70 ready for relaunch. Put it on the bench and hooked it up to my trusty old Micronta variac, set to "Zero Volts", got the fuse in, and switched it on.

Started out slowly turning it up to 10V, and waiting 15 minutes, and then turned it up another 10V to 20V, and waiting 15 more minutes, lather, rinse, repeat, until I got it up to about 117V.

At about 40V I began to see the barest glow in all but one tube (that Winged C). At 50V, it began to glow as well. So far so good. After about an hour, I'd nursed it up to 70V, every tube glowing strong. I let it sit at 70V for about a half hour, and then just slowly turned the knob on the variac up to 117.

Every tube came up like a champ. The ST70 Glows once again!

I let it sit and burn for about an hour, and checked the bias voltages. I had set the two adjustment pots to their center point. The left channel needed the slightest of increase (probably due to the Winged C) to get it up to the correct voltage, but the right channel was dead-set-centered on 1.56V. Boom. Rock solid. Done.

Now that the repairs are done, and I know everything is working, I will start tomorrow on re-connecting and re-arranging all the components in the system. I'm kinda spent at the moment...it's been quite a day! I'll post more tomorrow, but for tonight I call it a victory. All of the thanks go to my buddies @misfitwashere (who got me the parts) and our old compadre "Harbourmaster" on the East Coast, who sent the tubes.

More tomorrow, and to all a bitchin' Good Night.

Wednesday Night, 12-27-23

Well, it took awhile, but I finally got things re-wired and in position. Got the turntable and the FM3 hooked up and both work splendidly. I found a super-shielded RCA cable for the turntable specifically, and it sounds better...there's almost no need for the turntable ground wire now!

First, tho', I have to show off my speakers. These started their lives as Pioneer boxes, Model CS-44, to be exact. I got them at the thrift store for $25.

BUT: the 8-inch woofers and tweeters in them were garbage, so I replaced them with new components: A pair of 8" butyl-rubber surround, poly-cone woofers (they will never need reconing), and a pair of genuine Danish SEAS Tweeters, salvaged from a working pair of Dynaco A-25s.

The result? The 8-Inch Dynaco Speaker That Never Was! The A-10s had 6-inch woofers, and all the others had 10-inch woofers.

And the sonic result? A pair of mid-sized bookshelf speakers with rock-solid bass and the clearest, most well-defined mids and highs you could ever want to hear! And they don't look bad, either!

Here is everything finally in place:

And that about wraps it up! I've finally got my music back. I'll finally be able to continue my vinyl transcribing, and won't have to worry about my equipment for another good long while.

Many thanks again to my bros @misfitwashere and Harbourmaster. I couldn't have gotten it accomplished without y'all's help.

[canmom]

went to the big palestine demo today.

perhaps because the government kicked up a fuss about Armistice Day, or perhaps by gradual snowballing, it was probably one of the largest political demos I've been on - street was packed from end to end as far as the eye could see. maybe the BLM demos in the summer a few years ago were of comparable scale, but honestly i think this one was bigger. hours after i reached the end the column of marchers was still stretching back to the bridge at least. i can post some pictures when I've had time to scrub faces out of them.

i decided to improvise a protest sign this time. i had to buy permanent markers en route, so i wrote out the sign by the side of the road. some fascist prick walked by as i did this to call me a leftist pedo who doesn't know what gender I'm supposed to be in a tone of the most vehement disgust, which was oddly affirming. cunt must have fancied himself a poet, answering me giving him the finger with 'what are you, a man or a mouse?', which is cracking me up in retrospect.

there was a lot of rightful anger in the protest. lots of people led chants - at one point i saw the megaphone was held by a child who looked about 7. it was affirming to be surrounded by people who give a shit, even if they're all strangers. the organisers led us to the US embassy, where there were two different stages set up for speakers - most of them Palestinian but there was one Welsh MP there as well, maybe the Welsh politicians are less cowardly than England's. there were also the usual panoply of SWP gazebos trying to recruit people to help them carry out the important socialist activities of flogging newspapers and recruiting more SWP members. the end felt a bit aimless - after the focused energy of marching A to B, it ended in people going forward to the SWP/bookstore/painfully loud sound system area and then milling around, then either coming back to either stand by the first stage or gradually go home. it is frustrating to me that the willingness of a political demo to cause real disruption tends to be inversely proportional to its scale. but this was largely a symbolic march, that will make headlines just by virtue of the scale.

the US embassy itself (which has a fucking moat) was pretty locked down with cops and thick barriers stopping anyone approaching the entrances. my ears are still full of protest chants and my voice is a bit hoarse. apparently the UK gov is due to vote on whether to call for a ceasefire in a week. exactly how much diplomatic pressure they'll apply if that vote goes through, i can only speculate. in the meantime, we really need to be applying direct pressure on Elbit factories and other components of the weapons industry. but that's a lot riskier than an A to B march and requires much better opsec, so you know. if someone's working on that and they're any good at what they're doing, it won't be planned in public.