Sam Lin

Definitely going to start adding a "side of burgers" to my BBQ orders. Genius.

Little Miss BBQ in Phoenix AZ is an Austin? transplant, he was on the old site and posted when he was starting out. I find it too salty, otherwise it is good. He's kicking ass, I think up to 3 locations now, big line basically every day for lunch.

I've had a few bikes stolen over the years, and would vote for an instant death penalty for bike thieves. And cat (catalytic converter) thieves while we're at it.

I would attend one of your seminars on The Emu Principle, if you offered free pizza. And the building had parking.

Doesn't say it's a wife, but...

That's not unpopular, but at least it isn't as bad as Marvel, where their universe got so meh and stupid they had to create multiverses just to be able to keep making shitty movies.

Just finished both of these. (Thinking Fast and Slow first, and then The Undoing Project.) I'd call The Undoing Project a teaser for Thinking Fast and Slow, it's much more about the individual life histories of Kahneman and Tversky, and the people around them, than about the theories they developed. It touches on the theories in basic, easy to understand examples. (Feels like 80% biography, 20% theories.) Much easier read, also 200pg shorter. And it's a genuinely entertaining and enjoyable read, lots of historical content about life in early Israel with constant war. Thinking Fast and Slow is all about the theories, much more explanation of the theories as well as the formulas that are used to define the theories, and many more varied examples. Analogy: if Thinking Fast and Slow is a movie, The Undoing Project is the trailer for that movie. Would recommend reading The Undoing Project first, it is the more "enjoyable/entertaining" read, and then continuing into Thinking Fast and Slow if the theories grab your curiosity. As for the theories themselves, by now they are widely accepted as correct and as revolutionary; the Nobel prize doesn't come easy. It's real, useful food for thought. I hope to keep their lessons strong enough in my mind to question my own intuitions and decisionmaking at least part of the time.

A real 1%er would have bought a new car.

Saw this on Twitter recently, thread title reminded me of it. Terrifying even to watch, guy rides an actual 115ft wave.

Some thoughts: Sources - this is a whole area of its own, independent from the audio system. Vinyl will be the biggest hurdle here. Vinyl just has space and equipment requirements that you can't get away from, and it does not rip well to digital, plus that sort of destroys the whole point of vinyl. You need a turntable, (tone arm and cartridge will be included for most entry turntables, otherwise you need to add those as well) and phono stage/phono preamp. There are entry level products that have that built in. The CDs I'd advise ripping to FLAC (lossless) and storing on a NAS feeding a digital media server, that server will also be your connection to Amazon Prime and to Tidal or Roon in the future if you really get into high rez sources. The NAS you can also use on your home network to back up computer files, feed a Plex server so you can download TV shows/movies to watch on smart TV, etc. Some streamers have a drive built in, but your collection will likely be too large for the drive, but to keep it simple, you can just get an external USB HDD and most of the streamers can directly connect USB. Going to a NAS like a Qnap gets you more space but also RAID redundancy, so you don't lose everything if one drive fails. Be aware ripping the CDs will be a long, time-consuming process, and it pays to research the CD database software so it does all the naming/tagging automatically. There used to be some companies that you could pay to rip it all for you, you send them your disks, they send you back the files. But that's the better future-proof solution, and frees up your future physical storage space as well as your need to keep a CD player. That said, if you really want a CD player, the obsolescence of CD has killed resale values of top-end CD equipment and you can build what used to be a 5-digit dream system for low thousands. Outside thought, unless your CD collection is really esoteric, take a look at the Roon/Tidal catalogs. You might find they already have digital high-rez versions of all your CDs, in which case you might just pay for a subscription and stream it all vs the time/hassle of ripping your own stuff and needing a drive to store it. You need to think about where you want to be on the convenience vs sound quality scale. You can have both, but not cheap. And you also need to consider what audiophiles refer to as WAF, Wife Approval Factor. Can the system be visible? Can it occupy a bunch of space? Does it have to look nice in addition to sounding nice? Even a few Sonos speakers gets you into the thousands that you are trying to avoid. Sonos is nice for convenience, but once you start talking about multiple units/surround sound or multiple rooms/zones, the cost adds up. Room actually seems pretty good, good size, open sides, carpet, those make it easier than a small reflective room. But the size and the openness would push me towards floorstanding speakers over bookshelves and over sound bar type products. If you lean simplicity, consider active speakers, which means amplification is built in, so you don't need a preamp and amp to drive them. Some of these have Bluetooth capability built-in, in which case you could just run audio from your PC or phone. That's how a Sonos setup works. At minimum I'd consider an integrated amp with Bluetooth or streaming ability. That keeps you to one box + speakers. System concepts, from less to more. Generally correlating to performance but not really. But correlating to simple/cheap/performance, pick any two. And definitely in order of WAF: Source (phone/PC/streamer/turntable)-->active speaker with BT input (Sonos fits this, KEF has a few products at higher prices, this is a small niche product so your price is higher and your selection is lower) Source-->integrated BT receiver-->speakers Source-->BT streamer-->integrated amplfier-->speakers Source-->BT streamer-->preamp-->amp-->speakers

Audiogon

Thanks for the pics, looks incredible.

Don't worry, work already knows about you.

I know you say all genres, but still, what music hits your playlist the most frequently? And what volume do you generally listen at? Finally, what is the listening room? Size, wall finishings, shape and openings.

Man. RIP. Hell of a storyteller.

What do you have available at fish camp? Big pot of water on a fire is a sous vide, just stick a thermometer in it and move it away from the fire until it maintains just a moderate warmth.

Teslas

^this. It isn't just about protecting your own kid, though that's certainly your priority. The fact that the other kids and families are kept in the dark about the real reason prevents anyone else from being able to look for their evidence of similar grooming. This is exactly how people like this can continue to do it after being caught. For others' sake is why you go to everyone possible, to get this on record(s).

Just click Decline. They'll understand.

How is that a problem?

No. Literally none. Carry a small powerbank. It's like the rollaboards that have battery and charging built in, why the hell would you want to build obsolescence in??? Battery eventually won't hold a charge any more or the USB standard changes, and your fancy luggage becomes dead weight luggage. Now as mentioned, many newer luggage has a little pass-through hole for a charge cable to unobtrusively come out; I had a Kelty backpack with a hole for headphone cable to come out, and that was 20yrs ago. And is still usable today, and the hole works great for a charge cable. Smart future-proofing.

Seconded. Tried Brondell, tried Biobidet, nothing matches the Toto Washlets for refinement and control. Brondell just felt cheap and less developed/engineered. Biobidet was annoying in that the seat occupancy sensor was really finicky, move my ass one way and it'd think I wasn't on the seat any more and shut off the spray. Their customer service by all reports is quite good, I just didn't care enough to try calling. Swapped it for a Washlet. I prefer the Washlet models with the fixed side controls though, I hate having to worry about a remote and batteries for something that really has zero benefit from being remote: https://www.amazon.com/TOTO-SW3074-01-Electronic-Elongated/dp/B08S4646QQ/?th=1

Thank you! A bit of this homework was done back when I first bought the property, with thoughts towards building just a large garage/workshop at that time. The change now is to consider adding living space: The limiter for size will be the "cannot occupy more than 30% of rear yard area," and leaves plenty of space. Total plot is .75acre. No HOA, and zoning is "horse property" which allows 40% coverage. Would be adding this as "Guest Quarters" which has the "no built in cooking facilities stove/oven" restriction (see bottom of right hand column of chart below). Is this something as simple to get around as just leaving a dummy cabinet there and yanking it out and dropping in a freestanding range after the inspection is done? Property is supplied by city water but septic sewer. Increasing septic is a potential large issue if it'll occupy a bunch of land for leach field, or add cost if need to add pits. I don't know where the current leach runs, which is a problem. Other known obstacle is that they only allow one accessory building per property, and it already has a freestanding garage. The thought is to connect the existing house and garage to make it "one" building. Unclear yet how they define it, whether shares a connected roof or needs enclosed walkway or what. If that's not really feasible, then I'd demolish the existing freestanding garage. When I bought the place I already upped the power main to whatever the largest the city would allow, and ran a conduit for future "shop" subpanel across the house, to prepare for eventual workshop build. Here's an aerial view of the property and concept. The new building is intended to be a huge garage/workshop. Just adding 1500sf of guest house in it.

TL:DR, what are the process steps to build an additional house on current property, and how to execute those steps? Searching old posts, bumping up this old thread. Just starting to contemplate building a big workshop/guest house on existing land next to existing house. Timeframe is next few years, not anything urgent. This is in AZ. Have a general question regarding the process steps I should follow. Who do I talk to first? Architects? How to find good ones? I browsed some architect sites and saw they list some accolades they've gotten, some listed Houzz "best of" - so I browse Houzz, I find architects in the area that are voted "best of" each year that have done projects I like. Is this an ok way to find architects? I also see in another post above where you mention having a contractor recommend one - how do I find the contractors to ask? Once I get a list of architects, how do I go about vetting them? Then I talk to them about what I want, they draw up some models and plans. Does their scope include interior design and engineer? Or do I need to also find those later? I take the plan package they give me, and I shop it to some builders. I assume they will have some builders they have worked with and recommend. Where else do I search for builders? And again, how do I vet the builders?

Just following up on this, went ahead and did the coding with RJ. Added the auto multibeam high-beam lights and the Distronic radar cruise. General note, the biggest pain was that they are in the UK so the time slots for coding are not convenient for US times. I wound up doing it with them at 2am, which worked out ok for me as I was awake from jet lag anyways. I think you can book roughly their 5pm to be your 7-8am? Wouldn't be awful then. The multibeam auto high beams are super cool. This car already had the best headlights I've experienced, and I was already impressed with how fluid and seamless the light movement into corners was as you turn the wheel. The high beams are just as seamless, they turn on automatically, you don't really know when they turn on and off (other than the indicator in corner of gauge cluster), but you never get flashed by any traffic. The only complaint is they aren't sensitive enough to road signs up high and sometimes they stay on and glare off the sign quite badly, but that sensor may be confused by my window banner tint (I am not sure where the sensor is.) For the Distronic, my GLS required swapping the button assembly on the steering wheel. Easy, clear instructions and YT video were provided, parts arrived from UK same week. I marred up the access hole on the back of the steering wheel when inserting a tool to remove the airbag, but it's something only I'll ever see and know about. The actual coding was super easy. They mail you a programming dongle, you provide a laptop with Anydesk (and obviously need to have some data security comfort in letting some random stranger take over your PC for a while and do shit that is invisible to you). Laptop needs to have internet during coding, so you need to park somewhere with wifi or tether a hotspot. But then you connect the laptop to the car OBD2 via their dongle, give them the Anydesk code, they connect, and you just sit there and wait. In my case I had to turn the IGN off and on for a few seconds at one point in the middle of process, and then I had to immediately take the car for a ~15min drive without shutting it off when they finished so the Distronic radar could recalibrate itself. I think the coding itself took 15min or so, and then the drive. Was home and done in 45min, after driving around a bit extra just to play with the auto high beams. Did a few other "usability preference" codes since they included some free coding credits with my Distronic, stuff like "remember engine stop-start setting" and "64color ambient lighting" - exciting stuff, I know. Here's the full list of coding options they can do, apply to most modern Mercedes Benz: https://rjautomotive.net/pages/coding-options