Geek with Family

The handrail behind the DDR and In the Groove arcade dance pads have always confused me. I've really only seen YouTube video of kids salsa dancing with them and the handrails never came into play. Was it there for safety? How could you use it and still see the screen?

I got my answer to the mystery handrail last week on vacation in the Cape Cod Mall FYE arcade. My daughter, father-in-law and I were passing the time in the arcade while my wife and her mom shopped for maternity and baby boy clothes. My father-in-law played a soccer themed pinball game while my daughter and I watched over his shoulder. My daughter got restless after he hit 65 million points and we moved on to pretending to play driving games. While hopping from one Initial D bucket seat to another I spied the DDR action.

Continue reading In the Groove Arcade Kids On My Summer Vacation

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We're on vacation in Cape Cod through next Friday, July 28. I'm not sure how connected I'll be so you may see some posts and maybe not. Back to normal in the first week of August at the latest.

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What I thought I was going to do tonight:

• Put my daughter to bed
• Rip and make PSP videos of the Lion King and Dumbo DVDs with Handbrake, or Mactheripper and FFMPEGX (see ripdifferent.com). This is in preparation for our vacation to Cape Cod, so we have video distractions in planes and cars.
• Progress past "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" on Easy in Guitar Hero (I only began playing last night, so don't make too much fun of me)

What I actually did:

• My wife left for her haircut, saying goodnight and see you in the morning to our daughter, our daughter wasn't paying attention
• My daughter wandered into the hallway and realized her mom left, she starts hysterically crying, "I want my mommy" for the next ten minutes until I offer cuteoverload.com
• We scroll through July and then June overloading on endless baby bunnies, hamsters, kittens and puppies
• Another half hour of her crying, "Mommy," and me pleading, "She went to her haircut, she'll see you in the morning"
• Finally, as she's screaming in my ear, I pulled a, "Did you hear that? It's the cicadas." I carried her over to the window and listened to the bugs rubbing their wings together, watched a robin flying from our roof to the tree past our sidewalk and lightning bugs blinking on and off
• I tricked her into her room with promise of more lightning bugs in the back yard
• She fell asleep in my arms a good hour after her bedtime

So the DVDs will have to wait until tomorrow night.

I'm exhausted. Tonight was only remarkable because she's never acted this way before—freaking out when one of us leaves. Weird.

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The latest PS Audio newsletter has a link to an informative video demonstrating their new Noise Harvester. I posted about the Noise Harvester and its unique benefits when it was first announced.

I still don’t have one but this demo makes it all the more tempting. I’m sure I detected some nasty AC glare in my system when I was listening to Iron & Wine’s Our Endless Numbered Days on a hot Sunday afternoon (I blame central air).

The video features Paul McGowan explaining how AC line noise is traditionally dealt with in your components with conditioners like PS Audio’s Power Plants and the Shunyata Hydra series and where the Noise Harvester actually enhances their performance by intercepting and transforming AC line noise into light (magic blue light!).

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I’ve never found any affinity with audiophile journalism’s idea of a great album. The artists they pick to feature in their review of the latest used 2002 Toyota Highlander priced monoblock amplifier are always so boring. The reviewers’ sacred Diana Krall, Miles Davis and Aimee Mann albums will never infect my hi-fi system with their delicately whispered vocals, caressed snare drums and lightly plucked upright bass.

It’s hard to find audiophile opinions on any of the indie rock albums I love. Most current and former indie rock kids have either the same system they owned in college, factory installed car stereo, a Home Theater in a Box, or at worst an iPod and some computer speakers and stock ear buds. The audiophile community prefers great equipment but only to play their jazz, classical, vocal and, at best, classic arena rock albums. I feel very alone in my combination hi-fi equipment and musical taste.

To help out any other aging indie kids whose hi-fi system has grown up but their musical maturity never made it past age 22, I’ve compiled my top five indie rock albums that can show off your hi-fi system. I hope you’ll share more albums with me in the comments. I want this list to grow. To get an idea of all the music I listen to check out my Last.fm page.

Continue reading Indie Rock Albums for the Audiophile - Top 5

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Rogue Audio Perseus Preamplifier

Mark O'Brien and the crew at Rogue Audio have retired the Sixty-Six preamp I used to own before my current Ninety-Nine. Their new Perseus replaces it with an expanded feature set as SonicFlare explains below:

Meet the new Perseus preamp from Rogue Audio, the bad boys of tubes. The Perseus is a slim $1795, slotting in right above their $995 Metis preamp and below their $2495 Ninety Nine preamp…The Perseus includes phono for you vinyl junkies as well as a remote, HT bypass and subwoofer out, which many are clamoring for these days.

I love Rogue's design evolution: shrinking the height of the preamp letting the linestage 12AU7 tubes poke through the top case protected by an egg-slicer-like cage. I just hope they haven't compromised sound quality for compact good looks. I'm still not crazy about the carved logo on the faceplate (my Ninety-Nine also sports it), I preferred the screen printed raven.

(Via SonicFlare: Daily Source for Cutting-Edge A/V.)

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I've had an unusual amount of electronics break on me in the past few months. This post should serve as a warning for you to back up any important data on a regular basis. Because if your spouse finds out you just lost every last picture you took of your daughter for her whole life, she may be a little pissed—kick you out of the house pissed.

The following electronics have failed me lately: first my Diva Swans M200 computer speakers, then my external USB 2.0 fanless HD case (luckily the HD survived), then my Linksys WRT54G wireless router, and finally the hard drive in my Mac Mini.

Continue reading Mac Mini Hard Drive Failure and Replacement - Back Up Your Family Photos

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Ever since I've owned an iPod I've wanted a companion headphone amp like the Headroom Total Airhead. Never able to justify the cost and added weight to my already back breaking commuter kit, instead bought nice headphones, Ultimate Ears Super.fi 3, that work well with an iPod's internal amp. Still, my itch for an amp remains.

If I have an itch then this DIY headphone amp mad scientist has a major skin infection. First, he has over 130 different compact headphone amp designs. Second, many of them fit into small mint tins. Third, the Hybrid designs use tubes either hidden in the tin or poking through a die cut and lit with a colored LED light. Lastly, he has circuit designs for all of the amps so the possibility exists that a lowly hobbyist like me could construct an affordable DIY amp with caps, bread boards, headphone jacks and tubes from The Parts Connexion and batteries and Altoids tins from the drug store.

Via Streettech.com

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Last Friday’s Best Week Ever (YouTube video link) ran some not so funny, but just kind of mean, Mac parody ads (I originally watched them Saturday afternoon on my DVR). These ads make me feel bad about my hobbies, like blogging, making ironic t-shirts and mashing-up commercial works so I can call myself a participatory fan. I appreciate the parody, though, because I never feel like the real Mac ads are telling the whole story, namely the PC’s major advantage of video games.

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I never carry any cash. I figure, anything I need can be bought with my Visa check card. I use it for small purchases at Starbucks ($1.87 every weekday for a grande coffee in a venti cup with a cold soy topper (they used to charge me for soy, but not after I complained that New York City Starbucks provided a soy carafe at the “creation station”)) lunch, the bookstore, video store, grocery store and whatever else asks me for money. The Check Card transactions get posted to my bank account allowing me to track all my purchases. I don’t have to deal with change and tip jars. It reminds me that I’m living in the twenty first century.

Last night, with pockets empty of cash, I tried to use my Visa check card to pay the Naperville Public library $2.20. The $.20 covered a previous late fee (I know I returned the book on time, they just didn’t process it until the next day). I was paying the $2 for renting the American Splendor and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow DVDs.

Continue reading Public Library’s $10 Visa Minimum Ruins My Day

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