Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[GwenOnBass]

"Bought" my license for Transcribe! this morning, well before the end of the trial period. Good program. Doubt I know how to use it.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I first started jonesing for one after testing a Bionx conversion about 10 years ago.

Bionx was a small company out of Quebec. They offered sophisticated torque-sensing assist and a beautifully engineered direct drive hub motor with regen. Expensive, but very sophisticated- their second-generation version used CANBUS, just like your car. Riding a Bionx conversion was nearly silent, and felt very much like riding an unmodified bike, except that the wind always seemed to be at your back. It was very appealing.

At the time, the rest of the market revolved around DIY kits using cheesy Chinese-sourced hub motors with plastic internal reduction gears and lousy weather sealing, crude speed controllers and harnesses, and questionable battery packs.

Torque assist was available, but overpriced and poorly engineered Most people used a thumb throttle, so they were basically electric mopeds. There was no systems integration, and forums were full of enthusiasts trying to figure out how the magic smoke got out.

Sadly, Bionx failed to survive the transition to volume production, and went out of business in 2018. Thankfully, bigger players were already running with the ball- Yamaha was big in Japan by 2008, with 1 million purpose-built bikes sold. Their first mass-market mid-drive unit came out in 2013, and Bosch emerged as a major supplier the next year. The two of them still own most of the premium market, and their products benefit from being engineered to automotive quality standards.

I was skeptical about mid-drives at first, but using conventional gearing to multiply the motor's torque allows for longer range from less power. My 250 watt Gazelle pulls a lot harder, feels even more seamless in the way it provides power assist, and weighs less than the final 500 watt Bionx conversion kit. All of this while getting nearly double the range out of a smaller battery. I'm atypical in that I don't use a lot of assist, but I usually get around 80 miles to a charge.

I don't know about mountain biking, but for commuter/ recreational riding, the better bikes are very economical to operate. If you shop carefully, you can bypass the Chinese junk offered by most resellers, and pay about the same for something that's built to last. Even with the weak Canadian dollar, I could easily do 2,500 miles a year on $25 worth of electricity. Purpose-made tires from companies like Schwalbe can easily last a couple of thousand miles, as can disk brake pads. The better drive units easily rack up at least a couple of thou before they need even minor service.

High end bikes sure are expensive these days. Argon18 is also a Quebec company. I saw them at a show, prices ranged from $3K to over $10K, electric started at $5K.

 

[beans-on-toast]

"Bought" my license for Transcribe! this morning, well before the end of the trial period. Good program. Doubt I know how to use it.

Seems to be quite affordable give the power of the app.

 

[Deleted member 268085]

IME, a lot of old Bluegrass was not recorded well. Kinda hard to listen to when it sounds like there was one mic in the middle of somebody's living room.

The absolute best single mic recording I've ever heard was the famous Benny Goodman Live at Carnegie Hall concert in 1938. There's a wonderful story of how the recording actually made it to market. Way back when (pre-CD), I bought the double cassette version. Just look at the musicians he put together for that show! Super good! If I didn't include the CD version in the 25% of CDs I kept for shipment to France, I'll have to rebuy it. It's that good! The Wiki page leaves out some interesting details that are included with the liner notes.

The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert - Wikipedia

 

[Deleted member 268085]

That's a lost art. My mom had beautiful handwriting. I've always found handwriting tedious. I got an F in handwritting in the 5th grade. I stopped doing cursive many years ago. I can print faster than I could ever write cursive. Printing came about because of jobs - aircraft work orders had to be legible, writing computer code on paper had to be legible. My signature now is cursive printing for lack of a better term. In a few years it will be a something that looks like a G and an M followed by humps and scribbles. I may have a career as a doctor.

I met a guy who ran a college textbook publishing company (my 3rd and final ex worked for him early in her career) who wrote everything in perfect 8 pt Helvetica. It was weird. And so was he (he had to show me pictures of his wife before she became obese; she was in the room). What a jerk.

 

[GonePlaid]

Ever meet anyone who runs their mouth before their brain catches up? Me either.


edit
heard a pun. Do you know anyone who wants a package of dead batteries? They're free of charge.

(I'm stealing that. I love puns. My 'bitter' half doesn't. Oh, well )

 

[Jeff Scott]

There seems to be too many people on the roads. The population and congestion just keeps growing.

Bike paths cover the city streets with their own network.

I heard (while watching the pre-race) that over 26,000 people rode their bicycles to the Dutch GP, yesterday. They even did a helicopter flyover of the bike park before the race.

To simplify-"There's too many people."

Don't worry, they're rabidly working on that. Probably, not rabidly enough, though (they have a ways to go).

We won't need to wait for artificial intelligence to take over the world, we're already willingly surrendering to it one task at a time...now we have computers telling us how to properly compose and communicate our thoughts. What many see as the greatest time of technological enlightenment and progress I believe history will record as the dumbing down of America that led to its downfall.

Why is it taking so long?

Improper grammar (whatever that may be...not whatever may be taught in grammar school, I guess) is rampant on the internet and a bit disturbing to me. These bass player forums are surprisingly the opposite. The automotive forum that I frequent is just frustrating to me. There is a total lack of punctuation, capitalization,...any kind of indication where one thought ends and the next starts. It is hard to read through that and respond without getting insulting.

We have more than plenty of that right here in BassLand®.

Changing one line in a software routine can have implications where you wouldn’t expect it.

Does anyone at Microsoft or Apple understand this?

Once and again I might look at the passenger in the seat next to me and wonder what happens if it is his time to go?

Our society have left the era of pre- consideration, of planning, of taking the long view. It's all about now, now, now.

In the photography world (the old one, anyway, when it really was photography, not Digitizationing®, capturing, taking a picture, whatever.) this was called Pre-visualization (by some of us).

Bass player in the back, in the dark, as usual. lol.

Sometimes, I preferred that for myself, depending of the gig.

"Bought" my license for Transcribe! this morning, well before the end of the trial period. Good program. Doubt I know how to use it.

I only use(d) it for certain things, such as pitch correction (yeah! no more retuning my bass for every song!) and slowing down sections to work on a tricky part. The A-B phrase repeat is very useful for this. I got Transcribe! in the late '00s after learning about it in the old (UK) Bass Guitar Magazine. Transcribe! has a ton of features that I will never use, but my needs are/have been pretty minimal.

 

[GonePlaid]

I think Thanos is correct.

Kinda depends on which half ya fall in to.

 

[GonePlaid]

I heard (while watching the pre-race) that over 26,000 people rode their bicycles to the Dutch GP, yesterday. They even did a helicopter flyover of the bike park before the race.

Don't worry, they're rabidly working on that. Probably, not rabidly enough, though (they have a ways to go).

View attachment 4396808

Why is it taking so long?

We have more than plenty of that right here in BassLand®.

Does anyone at Microsoft or Apple understand this?



View attachment 4396789

In the photography world (the old one, anyway, when it really was photography, not Digitizationing®, capturing, taking a picture, whatever.) this was called Pre-visualization (by some of us).

Sometimes, I preferred that for myself, depending of the gig.

I only use(d) it for certain things, such as pitch correction (yeah! no more retuning my bass for every song!) and slowing down sections to work on a tricky part. The A-B phrase repeat is very useful for this. I got Transcribe! in the late '00s after learning about it in the old (UK) Bass Guitar Magazine. Transcribe! has a ton of features that I will never use, but my needs are/have been pretty minimal.

During my time in the Navy, a group of us joined an on base bowling league. The team's name was the Beta Phi Delta's=BFD's. Our bowling shirts were fluorescent green with silver lettering. There was no missing us.

 

[beans-on-toast]

 

[markwrob]

"Changing one line in a software routine can have implications where you wouldn’t expect it."

"Does anyone at Microsoft or Apple understand this?"

It's certainly not just SW-only systems with such concerns. Ask the folks at Lockheed Martin about their Mars Climate Orbiter. (Well it didn't.) Or the folks at Arianespace about their Vega launcher (or Ariane 5 way before that). Or the folks at Boeing about the Max. Many more examples out there where something as simple as a sign inversion or forgetting to multiply by i has caused catastrophe. Speaking as an engineer, one hopes to learn by all such failures, especially where the loss is greatest.

New methods are powerful tools, but since they are new they usually bring along new sources of error.

 

[GwenOnBass]

I only use(d) it for certain things, such as pitch correction (yeah! no more retuning my bass for every song!) and slowing down sections to work on a tricky part.

Absatively.

 

[gtmalone]

Mowed grass today. Around 90 and the humility was lower for a change. Temps are finally trending downward!

New neighbors started moving in today. Mrs GT asked me if I was going to help. I said I would get a chair and a beer then sit and watch them. Haven't met them yet.

 

[biguglyman]

During my time in the Navy, a group of us joined an on base bowling league.

I was in a bowling league once upon a time. Me and two chicks from work made up the team. I came up with our name.
. . :

Yes, that's two periods and a colon. Guess which one I was...

 

[Black Out Jazz]

Mowed grass today. Around 90 and the humility was lower for a change. Temps are finally trending downward!

New neighbors started moving in today. Mrs GT asked me if I was going to help. I said I would get a chair and a beer then sit and watch them. Haven't met them yet.

I cut grass too, 1st time since the corona. Man, I am out of shape.

 

[Black Out Jazz]

LOL this is great! Effing pawn shops... "Item is used but is in great working condition. Two of the knobs are broken off." Uh...one of those knobs is the VOLUME.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[GonePlaid]

LOL this is great! Effing pawn shops... "Item is used but is in great working condition. Two of the knobs are broken off." Uh...one of those knobs is the VOLUME.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

You could get in shape doing curls with that amp(it has to be good for something).

 

[Black Out Jazz]

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[beans-on-toast]

A real gamble buying a used cabinet and shipping it untested.

 

[Jeff Scott]

A real gamble buying a used cabinet and shipping it untested.

A lot of people like to gamble (Las Vegas, anyone?).