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Sam Lin

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Sam Lin

  1. Ha, Audi and Porsche laugh at you. Try 20k or more.
  2. We had a panel interview a few years back, finish up with the candidate, I ask the group "what do you think?" Everyone looks at each other, then the entire room bursts out laughing. It was amazing.
  3. This is where it died. The "formula" was really that their movies had so many layers of story, their characters had complex development, every age group/audience sector got something meaningful out of every movie. Lasseter was an absolute master there. Their newer stuff has lost the layers and lost the magic in doing so. Incredibles was a great example, look at the dad's character from movie 1 to movie 2. The character went from a complex, internally torn, emotional and growing human into a stereotype caricature with a single focus. Lightyear was another. Buzz was one supporting character in Toy Story, yet had more personality and more character development in Toy Story than in Lightyear (an entire movie about him!), where he also became a stereotype caricature with a single focus. Lasseter made his characters human. Pixar since then has made its characters stereotypes.
  4. Life is actually stranger than art down there:
  5. I've had multiple classmates go through the grinder, didn't envy them the hours or lifestyle at all first few years, but after that, it isn't the grind any more and they're now making a shitton of money. As an outsider, I'd also say to stick with it. At least do a few years and then transition, like many have advised already.
  6. thatsmyfetish.gif
  7. That's the Weber cover from 2013. It's under a patio roof so doesn't see direct weather at least half the time, and is sheltered from winds.
  8. Lightyear was SUCH a waste of potential. Could have gone so many ways with Buzz life and development, easily a whole series of movies there with a well-loved and recognized character that had strong family fanbase. It could have started a modern kids' series of space adventure movies with the brand recognition of Star Trek. Instead they took his character and made it totally one-dimensional stereotype, made everyone else wooden stereotypes as well, and somehow picked a plot that was so buried in science (relativity) that it confused the shit out of most parents, much less the kids. Which is ok if it is entertaining, but it was boring as fuck. The movie in the trailer looked badass and exciting. Exploring new alien worlds as a badass spaceman. The actual movie wasn't, at all. We got midlife-crisis ex-spaceman obsessed with fixing his mistake.
  9. Why not?
  10. Some math here. It doesn't work for all makes, make sure the financing terms actually are removing the credit from capitalized cost. In some cases the dealers mark up the price by the credit amount so you gain nothing. Other cases the lease cannot be bought out. Lots more discussion in the thread if you browse and read. https://slickdeals.net/forums/showpost.php?p=163916216&postcount=66
  11. Yes, there is a loophole where cars that wouldn't qualify for the credit if sold can still get the credit if leased. However, leasing companies have generally rolled that value into the lease, so you don't gain anything if you wait to buy out until end of lease. The way to make it pay off is to lease but then prepay and buy out the lease immediately (months after leasing). Once you subtract fees you generally realize around 5k of discount - not the full 7500 savings but still a decent amount and something you couldn't save otherwise.
  12. She wants the pastrami reuben.
  13. Think that was also the plot of a level in Hitman (video game)
  14. Heads up, Masterbuilt has 30% off sitewide for Father's Day. Code is Family30 and is active now. Works on the 1050, brings it to $560. Free shipping over 100. Some people in this Slickdeals thread also report that regional Home Depots have the 1050 on sale for 495: https://slickdeals.net/f/16720154-masterbuilt-com-30-sitewide-example-30-inch-digital-electric-smoker-195-99-after-30-off-coupon-free-shipping?v=1
  15. Wait until roughly the 4th patch if you want a good Bethesda gaming experience.
  16. It's a beast, has fed a whole lot of people. That's a large (22") WSM dwarfed next to it. Rotisserie has never been used. But everything else has!
  17. Oops, RIP thread is here in Daily Texan: https://www.surlyhorns.com/board/topic/31318-rip-cormac-mccarthy/
  18. Coco was a masterpiece.
  19. Buy high, sell low. Pro strat for avoiding capital gains tax.
  20. RIP Cormac McCarthy. 89. https://www.wsj.com/articles/cormac-mccarthy-renowned-american-writer-dies-at-89-82841edb?mod=hp_featst_pos3
  21. That's a clever idea; home "ear impression" kits have been available for quite some time now, but this packages it on a headphone and uses UV cure to make it much more forgiving on timing. I wouldn't recommend it simply because the earmold is one piece with the earbud; if the earbuds die you are stuck throwing the whole thing away, while an aftermarket earmold, you "socket" the earbud into it, so you can swap out the earbud with another of same casing if one dies or you want to upgrade. I've also seen many people offering "custom molded earplugs" using similar kits at gun shows: https://earinc.com/product/ez-impression-kit/ I generally don't recommend them. 2 reasons - one is safety, a proper earmold needs a deep ear impression, which has real risk of getting molding compound close enough to the eardrum to cause damage. You really need a foam blocker to prevent this. The other is performance - a proper ear impression needs to be open mouth (bite on a 1" block as you take the mold and don't move until it sets) and needs to be proper depth to seal, and the molding technique affects how well they fit. I always go to an audiologist to do mine, and even with those professionals they've had to redo the earmold once or twice due to poor fitting results. If you're comparing to generic eartips, even a poor earmold will be a huge improvement, but if you're going through the expense and hassle of a custom earmold earphone anyway, then I'd advise paying the bit more to be sure of a great result. Photo of one of my earmolds - you can see the foam blocker and extraction string, and just how much of the ear canal gets molded.
  22. I've done the room correction portion a few times, but at the consumer level, meaning I used a lot of the "autotune" abilities instead of digging into an EQ myself band by band. For a Dirac or Audyssey autotune, it's really just a matter of getting the mic to the right positions (you want to do multiple positions bracketing your listening ear position to get the best results), and making sure the room is really the same way that you'll be listening to it (IE if you'll be sitting there, you sit there. If you'll have listeners with you most of the time, have people sit in those positions. If your blinds will be closed for movie viewing, shut the blinds! For your speaker build and miniDSP, you really <really really> should join the DIY Loudspeaker Project Pad group on Facebook. Those guys go deep info crossover design and there's a ton of fabrication experience there too. This includes if you need to find a local CNC, sometimes you can post and find a local willing to help you out. Also would be worth checking out the RTA in Cars FB group if you want to nerd out. Though it focuses on car environment, the DSP/EQ info in there for "cabin tuning" can directly apply to house room use. It's all about doing mic traces, time/phase alignment, and adjusting DSP. Some really great how-to in there that will walk you through from zero knowledge, just the desire to learn.
  23. I've mentioned them somewhere else in a headphone thread, but your posts really make you sound like the right candidate for some custom earmolds. It's not cheap, but it gives you perfect fit which really helps bass performance, and more importantly is comfortable for as long as you want to wear them and doesn't move no matter the activity. Not recommending these guys, just giving you an example of what they look like and cost. Cost to have a local audiologist do an impression is roughly 100, cost of the custom earmolds is around 150, total 250, and they only fit the specific shape of earphone, so you can't later switch makes easily (but you can switch within a brand IF the casing is the same, like Shure 215/315/415 all use same, Etymotic ER generally all use same, etc): https://www.pilotstuff.com/averysound/custom-audio-earpieces.html Again, not cheap, but if your ear canal is a really tough one to find a decent off-the-shelf fit, and it sounds like it is, and you listen a lot, it may be worth the money.
  24. Are you totally averse to doing it yourself? Newer home theater equipment nearly all has pretty good ARC (automatic room correction) capability, you just set up the mics and run the sweeps. It works quite well, will get you 80-90% of the way to a pro tune. Audyssey is probably the best known, but there are plenty of brand-specific names for it. See if your receiver/processor have the capability already. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/automatic-room-correction/ If you want to nerd out and dig in, MiniDSP has a pile of great technical writeups on its site, you'd want to buy a decent calibrated mic for ~100, but the software is free. https://www.minidsp.com/applications/digital-room-correction/drc-basics Mouse over the Applications tab on top to see all the articles, screenshot here:
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