[09:45] <ducasse> good morning all!
[13:27] <BluesKaj> A very Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it :-)
[13:28] <ducasse> the same to you BluesKaj (and anyone else lurking here ;)
[13:29] <ducasse> BluesKaj: your celebrations are today, aren't they?
[13:32] <BluesKaj> ducasse, we celebrate on Christmas Eve in the Swedish/Finnish tradition and Chriatmas Day in the Canadian Tradition , since our family is made up of both cultures
[13:34] <ducasse> aha, i see. i got a shaving kit, wondering if i should take that as a hint ;)
[13:37] <BluesKaj> ducasse, but you celebrate  Scandinavian Christmas , right ?
[13:40] <ducasse> BluesKaj: yes, we celebrated last night, i just got in the door at home. there's a traditional extended family dinner tomorrow, so the feeding frenzy isn't over yet :)
[13:42] <ducasse> today i'm setting up an old mac mini i've got for my elderly neighbors, so they can use it to pay bills and stuff online. broadband is included in the rent, so that part is covered.
[13:43] <ducasse> not a powerful machine, but it will do.
[13:46] <BluesKaj> that's very kind of you , a gift to your elderly neighbour :-)
[13:48] <ducasse> they are really nice, and it's better if someone can use it than it just collecting dust here. my thinking was a mac is probably easier for them to use also.
[13:51] <BluesKaj> yeah, they are very user friendly computers
[13:52] <ducasse> all they need is a browser, basically. i'll give them a crash course during the holidays :)
[13:53] <BluesKaj> right ...I'm probly the same age , but I've been a techie all my life
[13:54] <ducasse> it's really easy to think this should be simple when you've been using computers for decades yourself
[13:58] <BluesKaj> I started out as an audio hobbyist and after most audio kit manufacturers disappeared I got intersted in computers after retirement which was 18 yrs ago
[13:59] <BluesKaj> been on linux for about 12 yrs
[14:04] <BluesKaj> a friend rescued a pc from a dumpster at work and gave it to me thinking I could get it working , that was the first pc I installed linux on. I tried several different linux OSs like knoppix,, slackware, mandrake, redhat, then debian and finally ubuntu
[14:09] <ducasse> i got my first computer at age 5 (vic20) and started programmming basic. my stepdad had a pc i learned soon after, and i got my hands on slackware quite early (kernel 0.62something).
[14:11] <BluesKaj> cool, I've never had much interest in proramming /coding , but the ideea od FOSS appealed to me from the get go
[14:11] <ducasse> after that i got started with redhat but preferred slackware, so i switched back. i had played a little with coherent before i heard about linux, so un*x wasn't completely unknown to me. learned from old library books :)
[14:12] <ducasse> i'm not much of a coder :) i know a little perl, enough shell to cause trouble, and i'm trying to learn a little python. i've also played with c, but not enough to be useful.
[14:14] <ducasse> i try to help with translations, documentation etc instead, so i've translated a couple of programs to norwegian. i leave the coding to the pros, only want to know enough to fill my own needs for scripts etc.
[14:17] <ducasse> i was _amazed_ at the first slackware kit i got. three cd's full of source for everything from x11 to latex. it really opened my eyes.
[14:19] <BluesKaj>  I finally bought a decent pc in 2006 with 2GB RAM and a 1.8Ghz cpu ...then I discovered KDE and I was in "Linux heaven"
[14:21] <BluesKaj> we did have windows pc that wife used for email and surfing the net , but I didn't fool witht it much except increase the memory an add a decent soundcard and nic .
[14:22] <ducasse> i don't remember when i got my first pc, but it was an ibm ps/2 model 80. must have been the early to mid 90's.
[14:23] <ducasse> one day a friend asked me if i could fix an sgi machine his company had, which i did, and that led to a job admin'ing sgi irix and hp-ux :)
[14:24]  * ducasse misses _real_ unix boxen
[14:25] <BluesKaj> good !
[14:25] <BluesKaj> our windows pc was a 1998 model HP with celeron cpu and not much Ram , not enough to run video etc on it , but that was early days
[14:29] <ducasse> i've had tons of pc's over the years, but also a few un*x machines. i got a sun ss20 from a place i worked, bought a nextstation and a dec alpha online etc. can't do that anymore, i'm too old to fill up my apartment with essentially useless hardware.
[14:32] <ducasse> BluesKaj: are you still into audio?
[14:32] <BluesKaj> I still maintain an interest in audio, yes
[14:33] <ducasse> do you run a realtime kernel and do production on linux?
[14:33] <BluesKaj> no
[14:34] <ducasse> i had a couple of synths and a creamware card once, but decided i had no talent for it. it would be fun to get a midi keyboard and test current state of linux software, though.
[14:36] <ducasse> my audio interest is mainly in hifi gear, and i can't afford to keep that up as much as i'd like to. as long as i can enjoy the music i'm happy.
[14:40] <BluesKaj> I'm mainly a listener nowadays ...we used to record our jams a lot back in the 90's on vhs HiFi tapes, and I did transfer some songs to cd using audacity
[14:43] <BluesKaj> yeah , I've had an interest HIFi equipment since the late 60s
[14:45] <ducasse> i'm mainly into it because i'm an avid listener and want decent sound quality, but i'm not a complete audiophile nut. i saw an ad for gold ethernet cables costing $10k, that's just silly.
[14:50] <BluesKaj> ducasse, my experience with HiFi equipment is that reaching audio nirvana seems to be a pursuit restricted only to the very wealthy, however I've listened to some pretty expensive preamps, power amps and especially Hi-end speakers and the sound can be very good , but my conclusion from yrs of experience ids that if you have a decent affordable amplifier and speakers then the source material usually determines how good
[14:50] <BluesKaj> the sound will be.
[14:52] <BluesKaj> expensive audio cables is suckers game IMO
[15:02] <ducasse> i completely agree. back when i could afford it, i bought two fairly good monoblocks, decent speakers, a decent cd deck and stuck to fairly normal cables. the result was good enough for me, i doubt i could have told any difference with expensive cables.
[15:04] <BluesKaj> my last word about HiFi equipment is that it once the equipment reaches a price point that only wealthy audiophiles can afford then the price reaches the point of diminishing returns in terms of real sound quality.
[15:07] <ducasse> i always wondered if those monoblocks really sounded so much better than the (good) amp i had before, or if my brain "told" me they did because i had spent >$3k on them...
[15:07] <BluesKaj> a $12K turntable made by elves in a Scottish cave doesn't sound much diffrent with decent crarteidge and stylus than my old Dual 1219 with an ADC  cartridge and  stylus
[15:07] <ducasse> lol
[15:09] <ducasse> a friend had a turntable hand-carved from acrylic by a swiss nuclear physicist. that world is beyond me.
[15:10] <ducasse> i need a decent (but affordable) turntable, any suggestions?
[15:13] <BluesKaj> i saw an aydio technica direct drive on amazon for $400 which incudes  a phono preamp ...seems like a decent deal
[15:14] <BluesKaj> https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B002S1CJ2Q/ref=dra_a_cs_lb_hn_xx_P3392_100?tag=dradisplay0c-20&ascsubtag=3b90cdf4e02d2e67dd92bccadc67f9b0_S
[15:16] <ducasse> thanks, i'll check that out. i've personally always been a fan of rega, but i don't think they sell them here any longer.
[15:17] <BluesKaj> depends on your budget of course, there are still some higher end TTs up around $1K if you want to spend that much, but audio salon might be the place to audition that kind of equipment
[15:18] <BluesKaj> yeah but regas were kind of minimalist TTs were they not?
[15:19] <BluesKaj> no arm lift when the record was finished
[15:20] <BluesKaj> I still have an old Philips Labs power amp that gave my home built transmission line 3 way Peerless speakers a little more low end reolution than my old heathkit 4ow/ch amp but otherwise at normal listening levels there wasn't much difference
[15:25] <ducasse> no arm lift on the regas, no. they were minimalist, but great value for money. came with decent pickups, and good quality builds. i really liked mine.
[15:28] <ducasse> BluesKaj: i had the predecessor to these, fantastic amps: http://exposurehifi.com/products/item/3010s2-mono-power-amplifier.html
[15:29] <ducasse> and this: http://www.rega.co.uk/planar-3-2016.html
[15:33] <BluesKaj> nice! :-)
[15:38] <BluesKaj> i have a TT , but it's an old elcheapo pioneer belt drive I used in my Dee-Jay business back in the 80s..I switched to cd back around 1986 and hardly used my TT since...my Dual TTs are kaput
[15:44] <ducasse> i also had a thule preamp (danish company) and matching cd player. both had xlr, as did the exposures, so i used those. if that is really necessary for a home system is another thing, but they were there anyway :)
[15:45] <BluesKaj> xlr ?
[15:45] <ducasse> balanced inputs/outputs.
[15:46] <BluesKaj> oh yeah , that debate '
[15:47] <BluesKaj> they work for pro sound gear with XLR and other types of inputs
[15:48] <BluesKaj> lowers hum etc
[15:48] <ducasse> for pro studio use where there is a lot of equipment that generates noise it might be worth it, i just used them since all my gear had them and the cables weren't really pricey.
[16:16] <ducasse> BluesKaj: i've gtg, set up that mac. ttyl, enjoy your celebrations!
[16:17] <BluesKaj> ducasse, same to you, nice talking to you today ..have a good one , enjoy!
[21:26] <Bashing-om> I am Back .. and Christmas'n is all done with . \O/