[Watt? Me worry?]

Hi RATs!

I used to play records, but, it became far beyond daily execution,
for me.

Same, later, for one CD at a time. I avoided a general purpose
computer in my audio system as long as possible, but, when I
subscribed to PADA, I discovered MP3 is not always the wretched poison
I heard, first.

Now I am using .WMA to rip the CDs I still have. Well under a
thousand. I might even get them all ripped, if I quit listening to
them as I rip them... sometimes twice

I have only downloaded FLAC. "Kind of Blue" never sounded this good on
my vinyl. I use XBMC. I still like "Sketches of Spain" better We
have a 10M DSL link to the wireless router. My wife has two PCs, I
only have this one. She is vertical a bit more than me. Not much.

DVDs are OK for movies, and the BR drive in my PC works OK for this
$150. 23" HDMI monitor. I do not watch them often enough to bother
ripping them. Music may be a fine document, movies are, at best, a
papier mache Pinata

When we switched states a few years back, I gave away my collections
of video tapes and fancy metal casettes. I got a fast $350.00 for
about six van loads of old amplifiers and speakers and misc test gear,
after my friends had cherry picked. The big CD changers kept my
favorites in play, and played 24/7, usually. I have been a bit
inactive since 1997, when I caught this slow boat to nowhere, CFS.
Music has often been the only thing happening in my brain for long,
long periods of time - awake or asleep. Better than nothing - I
actually have done A/B - Double Blind is too good a word, babe, so
I'll just say: "What the Hell."

Yes, a terrabyte is under a hunnerd bucks. 16K for my kid's Vic 20 was
$79. in 1982?, but, it was slow, and huge, 32 chips, IIRC, 2 x 4 on
both sides of two boards... he used an old analog tubed color TV as
his monitor. He could dial in any color he wanted, one at a time

The new tweeters I got on sale from Parts Exspress for under five
bucks are the biggest improvement to my system since Blumlein garters,
also in that price range

It is not at all stressful to me that each driver cost less than the
cap I use in the crossover, the sound is terrific. Even my wife likes
it! (She Who Cannot Be Impressed)

I am not really up for an external DAC, this one is not horrid, and
the next PC will no doubt be better. No hurry When commercial
hardware says it supports 7.1, I find their PS adequate for stereo...
The early stereo CD players required upgrading PS caps and diodes,
even for cloth ears like mine

Happy Ears!

Al

[Patrick Turner]

On May 13, 4:25*pm, flipper wrote:
On Wed, 12 May 2010 21:42:31 -0700 (PDT), Patrick Turner


That would have been a $60 a week habit here, including the drive to
the shop and parking fees.
Petrol has always cost more here thanks to US company policies........

More fantasies you learned, I suppose, from cartoons.

The U.S. Constitution explicitly prohibits imposing any tax or duty on
articles exported from any State, with no exception for 'screwing
Australia' mentioned, and if we could control the price of oil we, for
damn sure, wouldn't be paying $80/bbl for it.

My knowledge of the administration of US constitutional matters isn't
very deep, but what you've said sounds just like bull****. Since when
did markets ever take much notice of a constitution?

To be honest, all I know is that there were many tarriffs on gear
imported to Oz which then made them very expensive and thus Oz makers
had a chance to compete when supplying to the small market in Oz. As
time went past in the 1960s and 70s, Governements discovered there
were more votes to be had offering ppl cheaper prices of OS goods due
to tarriff removals than there were votes to save jobs of Oz
manufacturing.
So after a few years by the 1970s, hardly anything electronic was made
here.

I do recall a customer of mine telling me he paid aud $4,500 for a
pair of AR9 in 1975. Maybe that was USD $3,000 then.
AUD $4,500 was nearly half my wages for a year.

But when I had to re-engineer the AR9 to make them sound OK and to
prevent them blowing up amps, I could see they sure were NOT worth
what the guy had paid.

Anyway, tariffs or not, US made goods were expensive here, so very few
ppl bought them. The car companies, Ford, General Mortors sold Oz
designed and Oz made cars here which were scaled down versions of what
was available in the US. If somebody wanted a Chevvy, they paid thru
the nose. Of course the few real US made cars we saw were all left
hand drive which we thought was odd.

The whole of Oz with all its states and territories only has about the
same population as Carlifornia, and so we could not ever be totally
independant industrially so nearly all big manufacturing here was done
under the overseas parent company.
Mullard and Phillips made tubes and many parts here for radios and TVs
but that all soon went phut when asian goods began flooding in and
tarrifs and cosy government assistances dried up.

I am always amused when americans whinge about rising gas prices for
their cars.

But we pay a heck of a lot more per litre for our gas and we always
have.

I can't wait to get an electric car.

BTW, I heard the US is draining the Gulf of Mexico and filling it with
oil. How's it going?
Will your gas price be cheaper at the beach?

Patrick Turner.

[Fred[_12_]]

"flipper" wrote in message ...

More fantasies you learned, I suppose, from cartoons.

The U.S. Constitution explicitly prohibits imposing any tax or duty on
articles exported from any State, with no exception for 'screwing
Australia' mentioned, and if we could control the price of oil we, for
damn sure, wouldn't be paying $80/bbl for it.

Dude! Exporting countries don't slap duties on products, importing
countries do that to protect local industry! Nothing in the US constitution
is going to stop OZ from doubling or tripling the cost of US imports if
they want to. Only trade agreements between the two countries can
do that, and we weren't involved an many such agreements 40-50
years ago.

Fred

[Ian Iveson]

Fred wrote:

Dude! Exporting countries don't slap duties on products,
importing
countries do that to protect local industry! Nothing in
the US constitution
is going to stop OZ from doubling or tripling the cost of
US imports if
they want to. Only trade agreements between the two
countries can
do that, and we weren't involved an many such agreements
40-50
years ago.

Right, and without Patrick's duty, Australia's own music
industry might not have survived. There might never have
been "Two Little Boys" or the theme tune from "Neighbours"

Ian

[Patrick Turner]

On May 16, 10:27*am, flipper wrote:
On Sat, 15 May 2010 10:45:06 -0700, "Fred"
wrote:







"flipper" wrote in messagenews:lo5nu5t62emg726mig0duaebf71a41va2c@4ax .com...

More fantasies you learned, I suppose, from cartoons.

The U.S. Constitution explicitly prohibits imposing any tax or duty on
articles exported from any State, with no exception for 'screwing
Australia' mentioned, and if we could control the price of oil we, for
damn sure, wouldn't be paying $80/bbl for it.

Dude! *Exporting countries don't slap duties on products, importing
countries do that to protect local industry! *Nothing in the US constitution
is going to stop OZ from doubling or tripling the cost of US imports if
they want to. *Only trade agreements between the two countries can
do that, and we weren't involved an many such agreements 40-50
years ago.

Fred

That was my point and you're arguing with the wrong person. Patrick is
the "they're out to get us" conspiracy aficionado.- Hide quoted text -

Lots of people are "out to get us" . But I don't believe in aliens.

But when rock and roll started the locals tried hard to copy the
invading hordes of british and american pop music.
Some were successful and some exported to the rest of the world in a
minor, as one might expect from such a small country. Men at Work. If
ya really want original Oz music try some indigenous bands where they
sing in their own language.
The big yank invasion in radio & TV entertainmant is still proceeding.

Much of the population of any country likes american made movies and
pop culture. I seldom like anything made in US.

And its cheaper for TV stations to buy US crap programs and music than
make our own.
When we make our own its often even worse than US crap; bean counters
control production costs.

The whole free to air entertainment industry is dependant on
advertising. People HATE adds, and I hate adds so much have not
watched one add in 20 years. I surf away from the station to avoid
ther add and I have NEVER bought any product that was ever advertised.
We have the ABC which is a govt station like the BBC, and SBS where
adds are minor, not like commercial ****wit stations with ****wit US
shows where the advertising time is the same as the program time.


Lemme tell ya, I know where the OFF switch is on the tele.

Patrick Turner

- Show quoted text -

[Bret L]

Anyway, tariffs or not, US made goods were expensive here, so very few
ppl bought them. The car companies, Ford, General Mortors sold Oz
designed and Oz made cars here which were scaled down versions of what
was available in the US. If somebody wanted a Chevvy, they paid thru
the nose. Of course the few real US made cars we saw were all left
hand drive which we thought was odd.

My understanding is that most or all Australian states required RHD
for road licensure up until recently. Amongst car collectors that was
a big issue. Brit cars were easy to convert if LHD,(and home mkt cars
RHD already), most Euro cars were, American cars no.

The Holden in particular had an inline six that is much beloved but
**** poor over there, like our flathead Ford V8. Ford had improved
versions of US engines-importing cylinder heads from Australia was
common for years.


The whole of Oz with all its states and territories only has about the
same population as Carlifornia, and so we could not ever be totally
independant industrially so nearly all big manufacturing here was done
under the overseas parent company.
Mullard and Phillips made tubes and many parts here for radios and TVs
but that all soon went phut when asian goods began flooding in and
tarrifs and cosy government assistances dried up.

The key is to pick specific and high value markets. Aircraft are
excellent. Race cars and their components. High end audio would be
good-but as I have said you have to produce in a sensible way. Only
sheilas should be allowed to wind transformers, and restricted to
power transformers when OTR.


I am always amused when americans whinge about rising gas prices for
their cars.

But we pay a heck of a lot more per litre for our gas and we always
have.

Because of your own taxes and no other reason. Your sheilas vote left
wing. That's one consequence.

I can't wait to get an electric car.

Australia would seem to be a poor place for electric cars. IIRC they
have little or no hydro and no nukes and make most of their
electricity from coal or natural gas, and the distances between cities
are vast. Convert the coal to oil or turn the gas into methanol.


BTW, I heard the US is draining the Gulf of Mexico and filling it with
oil. How's it going?
Will your gas price be cheaper at the beach?


They were drilling at 5000 feet below sea level which is inherently
dangerous because the gummint won't let them drill where it is much
safer. We could be energy independent. Politics- corporate profit
protectiion and Israel First-are significant political problems, as is
the inflated importance of Iowa in selecting Presidents and consequent
support for the idiocy of corn based ethanol.

[Bret L]

But when rock and roll started the locals tried hard to copy the
invading hordes of british and american pop music.
Some were successful and some exported to the rest of the world in a
minor, as one might expect from such a small country. Men at Work. If
ya really want original Oz music try some indigenous bands where they
sing in their own language.


Australia had the right ideas for the abbos decades ago. Now they
have gotten mushy brained. The abbos have the lowest IQ of any people
on earth. I find orangutans more entertaining.

The big yank invasion in radio & TV entertainmant is still proceeding.

Much of the population of any country likes american made movies and
pop culture. I seldom like anything made in US.

Yes, you don't like us. But that is a position I respect. I don't
have anything against Australians, I know several who left, fine
people, but I would not want to live in a country with the stupid
policies Australia has in many aspects of life. Visiting might be
fun.



And its cheaper for TV stations to buy US crap programs and music than
make our own.
When we make our own its often even worse than US crap; bean counters
control production costs.

The whole free to air entertainment industry is dependant on
advertising. People HATE adds, and I hate adds so much have not
watched one add in 20 years. I surf away from the station to avoid
ther add and I have NEVER bought any product that was ever advertised.
We have the ABC which is a govt station like the BBC, and SBS where
adds are minor, not like commercial ****wit stations with ****wit US
shows where the advertising time is the same as the program time.

"Baywatch" was the most popular program worldwide for a decade.
Especially in black and brown countries. They like to look at European-
descent women. The reverse? Well, there is National Geographic I
guess, but it isn't doing too well as I can figure.

Australia has had several notable exports but for the most part they
aren't really trying very hard. Australia could be wealthy beyond the
dreams of avarice but socialism, envy and Tall Poppy have rendered it
a place where the best tend to leave.

It's interesting to watch "Mondo Cane" and the female lifeguard
parade. All beauty, no Diversity. (Well, there WAS diversity-real
diversity-you had blondes and redheads and brunettes. But Diversity
with a capital D means they all have to have black hair and brown
black eyes.) Why, oh why, did Australia end its sensible immigration
policy in the early 70s to be replaced by Third World invasion????????

[PeterD]

On Wed, 2 Jun 2010 18:13:33 -0700 (PDT), Bret L
wrote:



Anyway, tariffs or not, US made goods were expensive here, so very few
ppl bought them. The car companies, Ford, General Mortors sold Oz
designed and Oz made cars here which were scaled down versions of what
was available in the US. If somebody wanted a Chevvy, they paid thru
the nose. Of course the few real US made cars we saw were all left
hand drive which we thought was odd.

My understanding is that most or all Australian states required RHD
for road licensure up until recently.

IIRC this requirement is still active. Australia is one of the few
countries that really enforce this, without respect to the vehicle, or
its intended use.