Age of the "Slate"

Not even we, are immune the trends. About a month ago, the first tablet came to live at our house. I've alluded to it before, but never fully explained how I got what might be one of greatest "deals" in my Frugal Propellerhead career. So let me back up to the middle of the summer when this all started.

 At that point, my iPad toting brother-in-law who spent the summer here had been around for a month, and my techno-lust had been well-and-truly ignited. Of course, me being me, I didn't really want an iPad that seemingly every pretentious house-wife and fashionista twenty-something was toting around. Even my father-in-law had given in to the the disease and gotten one for his wife. So obviously that was pretty much off of my radar.....even if I could rationalize or afford it. 

What I really wanted was the ThinkPad "Slate" Tablet, by Lenovo. I didn't want it because it was a ThinkPad. I wanted it because of what made it a ThinkPad Tablet. It was everything that the iPad wasn't; it was function first and really pretty utilitarian in design. Not to say it's ugly, it's a bit of a "government agency GMC Yukon" of tablets. Of course you can read about it on one of the many review sites, but let me at least say that I'm more than pleased with the performance. It's equipped with a 10" IPS screen covered with Gorilla glass and packs a dual core processor supported by 64Gb of storage, not to mention the full SD card slot!

However, it's really the "back-story" of how I came to have it that's more interesting....so here goes. When I started looking at tablets. I was originally intent on starting out by purchasing a cheap android clone just to play around with, before I invested in something nicer. In fact, I had found a guy on Craig's List who was trying to sell a little 7" Viewsonic for $30. However, that seller was kind of flaky and never would meet me, so the sale never came to fruition. As many of you are aware, when I get interested in something, I spend a lot of time researching and hours on eBay watching them. Of course I was aware of the ThinkPad Tablet, but couldn't even afford the $250-300 that I sometimes saw them sell for, much less the $550 to $650 that they sold at new. Therefore, they were pretty much a "pipe-dream". Then, one day while scanning the eBay ads, I came across a guy selling a "new-looking", but "non-working" ThinkPad Tablet for $200. Knowing that they hadn't been out for very long, I was curious why the guy didn't just send it in for warranty repairs. We messaged back and forth on eBay; enough so that I was comfortable with him being what he claimed to be......which was someone who goes out to auctions and buys up pallets of goods. He said that it was in a "mixed lot" pallet and the rest of what he had for sale pretty much bore this out. What it means, is that his business is to go to various auctions, bid on pallets of goods that can come from almost anywhere, but commonly, from places that have gone out of business. So they end up with all manner of stuff that they don't have time to test thoroughly. They make money, by "flipping" this stuff as quickly as possible and do it all over again. 

Anyway, the most interesting part was that although he tried.....and ultimately failed to figure out how to work Lenovo's support site to find out the warranty status. Lenovo, like all the other bigger corporate suppliers typically have 1 to 3 year warranty periods which are pretty liberal. So, after a little digging, I figured out that the tablet in question, which by the way was the highest spec 64Gb model was covered till November 23rd of this year! And, before I offered him $150 (which he accepted), I even told him about it! Then began my odyssey with Lenovo warranty service:

1. The day I received it from the seller, I called Lenovo support- 
2. they sent out a box which I received the next day- 
3. that same day I got it back on UPS to the Memphis repair depot (which used to the EZ-Serv division of IBM)- 
4. the following day they acknowledged that the tablet had been received and said it would take a week- 
5. after a week, I saw online that it was "on hold for parts" so I called them to find out what happened- 
6. got escalated to a manager- who called me the next day to say that they weren't going to have that part for some time and they'd talk to Lenovo to see what they could do- 
7. a day later, he called me to say that Lenovo had agreed to replace it with a new unit......shipped directly from the factory in China!!! 
8.  Two weeks after that, I receive delivery of a brand new ThinkPad "Slate" Tablet directly to my house.......after one month of my time and $150 invested!

Do I love it more because it was ridiculously cheaper than what the normal price should have been? Yup, I sure do....but that's not the end of the story. Apparently I don't love it as much as my 9 year old son and 6 year old daughter, so we all know what that means, right!?! You got it......

Daddy-Claus has been busily looking for something for Christmas. After examing a crazy number of different tablets, it came down to what I was willing to spend on two elementary aged kids while making the salary of a teacher. That turns out to be around $100 give or take. Decision parameters?

• Their kids! If we were a part of a different demographic, maybe it'd be a no-brainer and we'd just buy iPads........hmmmmm...........naaaaaawwww.
• It needed to be small for kid hands and so they could carry it around in backpacks etc.
• It needed to have a dual-core processor so it could run something better than Android Gingerbread.
• It needed to be better-built than the usual "no-name" clones that may run great, or may break after a week. 

Actually the device that got me going was the Arnova 7, specifically the 7F G3 that Micro Center had on their sales flier for $100. For those who aren't familiar with them, Arnova, is a low-end branding used by Archos, a French electronics manufacturer. Although, not exactly an iPad killer, it does have a dual-core and comes loaded with Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Therefore, now that I had a legitimate price for a 7" tablet running something other than warmed-over phone Android, from an honest-to-gosh manufacturer, I now had a standard. 

 What I had figured out was this: 

1. I could buy a decent tablet pretty much any time, new or used for around $100. All you have to do is to do a search on the local Craig's List.
2. Unfortunately, at that price, all you'll usually get is an old single-core machine only capable of running Android "Gingerbread"....like the Lenovo IdeaPad A1 (illustrated above).
3. I wanted one built at least as nicely as the Lenovo IdeaPad....
4. But wanted it to be able to run Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) or better.....
5. And of course, I only wanted to spend around $100

So it looked like it was going to be the Arnova 7F G3 for a while.....right up until I came across the Dell Streak 7, being sold by Newegg, "refurbished" for $120. Here was everything I was looking for in one package. As part of the refurbishing, these unit are loaded with Honeycomb. It comes with Gorilla-Glass (just like my ThinkPad Slate), and a full sized SD card slot. And I'm betting that the refurbishing amounted to loading the new OS, flashing the ROM and replacing the backs with one that doesn't have T-Mobile markings! I'd lay even money that Newegg got a sweetheart deal on them when T-Mobile decided to get rid of the ones that hadn't sold yet from their original cost-supplimented deal they had cut with Dell. Anyway; I don't really care. I'm going to look good at Christmas this year is all I know!

Which leaves one thing left to do. You guessed it: A tablet for the wife of course! Let me give you one quote and see if you translate it as quickly as I did. Upon being offered to use my Slate, she said: "No, that's your tablet". The emphasis is mine of course, but you got the message, right? Now I've just got to decide whether to go with any one of the following options:

• A "rooted" HP TouchPad running Android 4.0 (ICS)- Least expensive
• A Motorola Xoom- Middle of the road (cost-wise)
• Or give in, worship at the alter of Jobs and buy her an iPad- Most expensive 

 

Of course, this is a conundrum all to itself and obviously in need of a separate post.

Lightning Strikes: The ThinkPad T61

NO, we didn't suffer a lightning strike. We had a bit of a lightning upgrade though. About a month ago, I was trolling the local Craig's List ads and can came across a poorly written ad for a ThinkPad. And of course, this peaked my curiosity, so I fired off an email to the seller to see what it was about. He turned out to be a recently graduated high school kid looking to sell all his various pieces of computing gear so he could by a Mac before heading off to college. The ThinkPad was a machine that he didn't use which had belonged to his uncle who had given it to him when he (the uncle) upgraded. In fact the kid, who was at work wasn't even sure what it was, but thought it was a T410. Therefore, at the listed $80; I jumped at it. Well....after several twists and turns (fairly common for Craig's List), I was finally able to meet him and it turns out that he was waaay wrong! It was a T61. Although, clearly NOT anywhere close to a T410, it was still a very good price for a T61 in nice condition, so I bought it. At which point, it promptly went under my workbench because I didn't have a use for it.

As most of you are aware, computers on a network need names so they can be identified. And given my geeky nature, I use military aircraft names for this. I also try to use groups which have similar names which roughly are associated to their function. They range from fighters for our daily use laptops like the very advance F22 "Raptor" for my X300 to the rather utilitarian C130 "Hercules" for the WHS file server built from old parts. The new T61 has been named the "Lightning II" for the F-35 depicted above. It replaces my wife's Z61m "Eagle". I know the logical progression would have been for this new machine to be the "Raptor" and the X300 to be the "Lightning II", but I didn't think about it then and will just have to live with this little screw-up in logic!

 

I've been VERY busy doing client work for the last month, so it mostly sat there under the bench, but when I did have a few minutes to look, it left me very impressed. It was in such nice condition that the original product "features" sticker was still on the lid. It really looked like a nice high-end corporate machine that just sat on somebody's desk for 3 years then surplused.....and I'm willing to bet, that's exactly the case. I did an image restore and it ran very well afterward, but mostly it just sat. Periodically I thought about what I wanted to do with it. I thought about replacing my Z61m "Tomcat" with it, but that seemed a waste since that machine sits in the closet most of the time given it's status as a "mobile studio" for a photographer that doesn't do much outside work. Plus, I had decided that I wanted to put an SSD in it since older machines of this type are really great candidates for the gains seen from this type of upgrade. Although SSDs have come down greatly in price, bigger ones (larger than 128Gb) are still pricey for someone like me. 

Then, one day I got my "marching orders". This came in the form of the wife walking in to the office and telling me that she needed another machine, so she could take one to school with her. Her new school district doesn't issue laptops and she wanted to have something that she could use there and not be tied down at her desktop. She wanted ot know if I had any ideas, at which point, I pointed under the bench and smiled. So I told her about the T61 which just "needed" an SSD for which I was given the approval to buy, then and there! Of course, this was what the last post was about, when I got lucky and came across the 240Gb Sandisk Extreme for $155 on Amazon's "Deal of the Day". Less than a week later, the Windows 7 running, ThinkPad T61 "Lightning II" was up and running. 

Total spent: $235 for a "Penryn" C2D processored, WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) paneled, 240Gb SSD, DVD+RW optical drive equipped laptop that I guess originally cost close to 10x what I spent! I'm going to say that I'm pretty happy with the build and believe that lightning did indeed strike on this one. But most importantly, my wife is VERY happy with her "new" and VERY fast machine!

Amazon's Daily Deals

Even Frugal Propellerheads that keep an eye on everything need a little luck every now and then! A few nights ago, my wife reminded me that I needed to order some 3.5mm headphone splitters for her classroom before I went to bed. So I rolled over, and got on the laptop to order this thing. Weeeeell....in the midst of this, I noticed that Amazon was running a "deal of the day" as the Sandisk Extreme 240Gb for $154.99! I nearly fell out of bed! I had been charged with getting another laptop ready for my wife, by her highness, and as luck would have it, I had lucked into a nicely spec'd T61 for $80 on Craig's List a month or so ago. All I had been waiting for was to find a good deal on a bigger SSD. I'd say that 240Gb qualifies as a "bigger" SSD since I run 128Gb ones on my machines!

So anyway, from just dumb luck, I'll have her in a pretty quick upgrade from the Z61m that she's been working on. It needed a rebuild anyway, so it'll get that, and go to her new school with her.

End of Summer 2012.....

Conceptually yes, but not really..... Today is the last day of summer for me. Tomorrow teachers report for training.

Some of you are probably thinking: It must be rough, being off for 2 months straight! I'm not going to get into the draining aspects of dealing with other human beings (unfinished ones at that), and the need to recharge. I'll just leave it at that we get paid approximately 2/3rds of what other college degree'd professionals in a general sense. It's not a bad job with rough kids in the "Blackboard Jungle" sense.

It's really more like the "Welcome Back, Kotter" version, but with a lot more pressure, 5 Horshacks (504 Behavioral Mods), 3 Vinnies (Special Ed), 5 Washingtons (Cultural/Ethinic performance tracking), and 3 Juan Epsteins (ESL). It isn't 1976 after all.

Most of time, it's really fun, and me being me, teaching world history; it's really a little more like this.

The real downside is that it gives me less time to work on my avocation which as you know is all things technology! Since summer is about to be over, lets take stock on what got done......and (unfortunately), not done.

For the bad, I did not rebuild "Hercules", my Windows Home Server, so that'll be on the agenda as soon as the beginning of school stuff settles down, some time around the end of September. I did not rebuild my daughter's X30 "Sparrow" Princess Edition into an X31, but that will really needs to wait until the garage isn't still 110 degree at 9pm. So I'm thinking, 2nd half of October for that. My personal laptop, the X300 "Raptor", was needed for client work and those times when the desktop workstation was down for upgrades on and off all summer. That'll be a VERY short and quick project, so I'm thinking over the weekend some time in the next couple of weeks. I also managed to acquire ANOTHER project during the summer, which is a T61 for my wife, who now would like a second laptop because her new school district has desktops. So, the Z61 will need a reload, and her personal stuff needs to be moved over to the T61 which I intend on installing a SSD. That'll probably be some time in the second half of September when I get enough money to buy another SSD.

That sounds like a lot didn't get done, which is pretty bad! Well, actually, just as much good occurred, but much of it was unexpected which pushed everything back. The most important was that I ended up with a LOT more computer work over the summer than expected. That's good for the bank account, but not as much for personal projects! 

So what were the good results then? At the beginning of the summer, there were two things that if asked, I would have put on a "wish list", and that was a backup DSLR and a tablet. Well....it came to pass that I was able to buy a backup DSLR for my system: the amazing "Plastic Fantastic" with 28-80mm/f3.3-5.6 "G" spec lens.....couldn't be happier. At almost the same time, I bought a broken ThinkPad Android Tablet. WHAT? How does that accomplish anything? Be patient and soon (fingers crossed) and all will be revealed in a future post. Moving on, the main laser printer was upgraded from a LaserJet 4000 to 4100, and as detailed in the last post, the "Blackbird" was upgraded, then upgraded again to what I believe will be it's final version which I would expect to last at least two years. 

It sounds like I didn't get an awful lot done and in some ways made more work for myself, but I don't mind. Some years ago when I made the decision to go back to teaching and not continue my IT career, it was a good call for me. I love teaching, and working on technology part-time helps me love it even more, since I can keep my mind off of the stress of that profession as well as maintain my love for the other.

Evolution of the "Blackbird"

Yes, that's right....my desktop computer is named for the famed SR-71 "Blackbird" of Lockheed's "Skunkworks" fame. Actually, all my computers have network names from military aircraft, mostly because they are the coolest things ever and the people who fly/flew them are America's unknown superheros! 

There was in fact a commercial pc version by that name when in late '07, early '08, HP brought out their super gaming computer. It was equipped with the then new, Intel QX6800 "Extreme" version of the Core 2 Duo Quad processor. It sold for between $6500 and $7000. I couldn't afford one.....actually, I couldn't even afford to buy the processor by itself.

So this is what I did. A little over 2 years ago, I started to build a desktop that would function as my photo-editing, music ripping, video transcoding, all-singing/all-dancing computer. So I started by finding a case that would last through several generations of rebuilds and still not look old. That means unobtrusive, big enough to handle anything that I wanted to put in it and rugged. I used the Cooler Master Centurion 5, which essentially has an all mesh front. The first thing I did was to get rid of the drive blank-bay cover with the logo. It needed to look stealth!

Lets just say that I spent lots of time reading every site and magazine under the sun to find a motherboard and processor to suit my needs. This led me to a package deal on eBay for an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 mounted on a Gigabyte EP43 board. The processor was basically what I wanted (within reason) since it was considered to be one of the finest affordable processors at the time, but the board wasn't exactly what I was after. I really wanted the EP45, which was then pretty new and just too expensive. So I settled for the little brother. I then grit my teeth and bought Mushkin RAM, and a 1Tb Seagate drive. I'm not terribly fond of Seagate, but it was on sale, so in it went. The other stuff isn't terribly relevant or interesting so I'll skip it, other than my one weird-o legacy thing, which is my Fujitsu Magneto-Optical drive that lives in it to this day.

 

So, things went along fine for awhile; that is until I came across my friend Pat's old "MythTV"/HTPC build that had been abandoned. One trade later (through a third party), it was mine and inside the case, that computer contained the coveted Gigabyte EP45 board! So a board switch later, "Blackbird" had the MB that had always been planned for it AND I had a home theater PC to boot (albeit with the lesser EP43 MB)! I also bought more Mushkin RAM (Blackline this time) and now I was up to 4Gb in the workstation.

Around this time, I was able to buy a Mushkin Callista 60Gb SSD and "Blackbird" received it's first reload, and let me tell ya....it was fast! A few months down the road, I came across a ATI Radeon 6700 on Craig's List that was selling for $50 so I upgraded from the HIS Radeon 4850 that had been in there.

In the meantime, I also went through a series of upgrades involving the monitors. I had started with my old Acer 20" LCD that was clone of their Acer/Ferrari F20 panel, but I wanted better performance and higher resolution. As luck would have it, I came across a local Craig's List ad for an IBM ThinkVision 17" LCD monitor at $23. Thinking that it would make a good "side/secondary" monitor, I had a friend on that side of the Metroplex pick it up for me. I figured; how bad of a deal can it be for $23! Let's just say that I was a little stunned when he brought it over and the ad turned out to be wrong.....very wrong.....but in a good way! It was a 20" L200p high-res (1600 x 1200) LCD that was top of the line in it's day....wow! Some months later, after being spoiled by the L200p, I started looking for a replacement for the Acer. I'm a little weird with regard to monitors, in the I'll take higher resolution over more size any day, AND I'd really much rather have a better IPS or S-PVA panel to the typical TN as well. After weeks of looking, I found a Lenovo ThinkVision L220x for about $85 shipped. This is where research shows it's importance in frugality. During those weeks of looking, I learned that there weren't a lot of "good" panels out there. Each manufacturer had just a few (sometimes 1 or 2) in their line. The L220x was not only a S-PVA (far superior to TN) panel, but an unusually high resolution for the size (1920 x 1200 in 22"). In general, you have to go to a 24" monitor to get that much real estate. For me, this was perfect since I share office space with my wife and don't have the liberty to go to a really big screen. On top of that bonus, I was able to sell my old Acer for $50 afterward, so the upgrade only cost me about $35 total.I can't emphasize how important it is to upgrade the things that you touch and look at on a computer! 

This state of affairs went along happily for about a year, then this spring I got the itch again when I noticed that the market for SSDs had taken another dip and I could get into one twice the "size" of what I had for the same money. Around the same time, I was able to pick up a Quad core Q6600 as part of package of parts I needed for another build. So reload 2012 occurred with an upgrade in CPU, SSD and more RAM (up to 8Gb). 

This summer the last of the upgrades occurred when my distrust of Seagate drives came to fruition in the form of the 1Tb "scratch-drive" starting to "click" and have write issues. One RMA later, it came back as a new drive, but it went into another (non-frontline) machine. Around that time, Micro Center was having a sale on Hitachi Deskstar 1Tb/7200rpm drives for $79, so I bought one to take the place of the demoted Seagate. Then the Coup 'd Grace arrived in the form of an Intel Core 2 Duo, Q9550 quad core CPU, also bought in a bundle of other parts for a different build. For those who aren't familiar with the entire Core Duo/Core 2 Duo line, the last of the quads known as "Yorkfield" are generally considered special. They much like the C2D, "Wolfdale" E8xxx line, run fast, run cool, are VERY over-clock friendly, plus have very large cache(s) onboard. The "Yorkfield" quad are essentially 2 "Wolfdale" cores on the same die! My "Windows Experience Index" went from 4.6 to 7.2 (out of a possible 7.9) with just that one change in to the system! These chips routinely benchmark within shouting distance of the first generation i5/i7 processors without even overclocking them!

So, essentially, I'm finished. There's really no more progression to upgrade to for Socket 775 motherboards and this machine will be expected to last until some point in the future when I make the jump to the "Ivy-bridge generation". I guess, at that point, the "Blackbird" will fly into the sunset like it's namesake.

World of Laser Printers: Part 2

I left off the last post with a discussion of our "workhorse", the HP LaserJet 4100 equipped with a JetDirect networking card, extra paper tray, and duplexer. Today, I'm going to get into the other half of the equation that makes our printing system here on StaNet complete. 

On occasion everyone needs to make a copy of something. Here in the United States, it's often our drivers licenses, or birth certificates for the kids' sports teams, but it could be any number of things. And of course, no one wants to have a full-blown copier in their house. About 10-15 years ago, the first of the reasonable all-in-ones came out and alleviated that problem. They just make so much sense; printer (usually color inkjet), scanner, copier, all in one rather small unit which not only gives all the functions, but clears precious space. However, with all the goodness comes compromise. Although, most people don't care about the slow and poor quality scans, the one thing that is an issue is the same for virtually all inkjets based devices. The fact is that it's an inkjet! Although there are some things about the technology that reigns supreme, the use of them on a day-to-day sense is not very cost or resource conscious. The fact is, they all dry up over time. I've never used one that didn't. Some are worse than others, but they all do it. Some use ink more heavily and some less so. We have friends that have a Kodak who say that although it doesn't come up to their claims, it is their experience that it does save some money in ink. In my own experience, I've come across nothing that uses up ink quite as fast as an Epson, although the output was always top-notch.

Some years ago, we picked up our first in a long line of HP all-in-ones, and used them first attached to a PC then moved on to networked versions that we could share. The whole time, it was a frustration to pay the $30-45 per cartridge on a regular basis. This was somewhat lessened for us since we didn't print out in color a lot (we had the laser by then) and we bought our cartridges in two-packs at Sam's Club. Still it was incredibly annoying to have put in a cartridge and print little or none, go back several weeks later to find that I needed to put in another to copy something! The cost per page was astronomical!

So, several years ago I tried the first experiment. I bought a used color laser printer: it was an HP Color LaserJet 5, I got it for a great price ($75 plus toner AND an unused set), AND it was HUGE. It wasn't a floor-standing model, but it should have been. I can't even begin to describe to you how big and heavy it was! I could barely lift it and could barely get my arms around it! It printed out beautifully, but DID I SAY THAT IT WAS HUGE, plus it didn't solve the copy need, so I sold it for about what I paid for it. But I was hooked! I knew that I wanted a laser for my color needs as well. I began looking at all-in-ones that were color laser based. Unfortunately, at that time, they we still quite large both in terms of size and $$$, so we kept soldiering along with the inkjet.

About 3-4 years ago, I notice several things were going on; lasers (that worked unlike the LJ1100 series) were getting smaller, Samsung was not only in the market, but they were supplying some of them to HP for the bottom end of the product line and they were doing some color laser all-in-ones! So I started watching them carefully and reading reviews. 

I don't think anyone who's the least bit interested in technology has missed the meteoric rise of the Koreans. They've gone from basically being a 3rd world country and outpost for the American military to dominant status in several key industries in less than 25 years! They've become as threatening to the Japanese industries as the Japanese had been to the American's in the the 70's. Basically, they've out-Japanesed, the Japanese! This has happened in everything from automobile and ship building to high-tech electronics such as cellphones, televisions and computer chips. 

What this led to for me was the Samsung CLX-3175FN, networked, all-in-one color laser printer. Not only does this thing do everything that I had needed from it's inkjet predecessors, it was small, unobtrusive and rather inexpensive. I bought it used for about $200 along with a complete set of unused toner cartridges which by itself was a $100 value! This pretty much completes my networked printer systems and covers the vast majority of my needs. 

The "vast majority"? Well yes: lasers are great, but they don't do photographs very well, so along the way, I've picked up some old Kodak photo printers so I can do quick prints to give people like my daughter's birthday party participants. People still LOVE to have a physical picture to hold in their hands. Eventually, I'd like to have a wide-format photo quality inkjet, so I can do my own printing of framed photos around the house, but that's a creative office reorganization to go and down the road. At this point, all I can say is that I'm extremely satisfied with our network printing system that's available to all computers at all times and doesn't dry up for less than $300 total invested! It was very satisfying the other day to watch my wife who was in her chair in the living room using her laptop on Wi-Fi to send various print jobs to whichever printer suited the purpose while printing out things for her classroom....all without a glitch and my intervention.

Sunday Morning Blog: Happy Vinyl Record Day!

Vinyl Record Day, for those unfamiliar started in San Luis Obispo, California, when the County Board of Supervisors proclaimed August 12th, 2002 to be so named in celebration of Thomas Edison's invention of the phonography on that day in 1877. 

Of course, Edison's device played cylinders which were difficult to handle and store, so it was left to German immigrant Emile Berliner to invent the Gramophone some 10 years later for us to get the disk shaped form that would be dominant for the next 100 years.

If any of you haven't read about the story of Berliner, vs. Edison, it's truly interesting and if not quite as electrifying as the famous AC/DC battle between Edison and Telsa!

Anyway, my purpose this morning isn't to rehash history that any of you can access (more accurately than my retelling) in 10 minutes on the internet, but to celebrate vinyl today. What a perfect way to end my summer. Next week, we go back to work, with the first of many teacher meetings, but today, it's a nice (sub-100 degree) Sunday morning with nothing (kind of) on my plate other than to enjoy a run through Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat", and Steely Dan's "Gold" (because I'm lazy and would rather not play Aja and Goucho). 

If any of you don't have a turntable, I'd encourage you to consider giving it a try. It doesn't have to be something British (the best in my humble opinion) and expensive like the Rega Planars. It could be something like one of the many 70's Japanese turntables like the Technics, Pioneers, and Sonys that can be found with regularity at second hand shops and thrift stores. Some like the famous Technics SL series can still be found in production and considered something of a legend among the younger crowd.

Of course, there is my personal favorite; Dual, for a great price vs. performance balance. You just can't beat German hardware. They make things to last. These can be found in any number of places, but you'll have to be careful since many of them are the heavily mechanical "rim-drive" that can have gummed up lubrication or degraded drive tires. It's much easier to replace an old belt on the "belt-drive" versions. Also, you'll need to make sure you get the important "headshell" with it. There were a number of different versions made and you'll have to use the correct one with the particular turntable. 

Not only is listening to vinyl records enjoyable and relaxing, it can be a hobby within a hobby, which doesn't need to be expensive. Records are often encountered at "garage sales" (here in the states) or "boot sales" (England). They can often be found at thrift stores, but you'll just have to check carefully on condition, but my favorite is our local Half Price Books stores. They just have a lot of stock, the price is fair, and the condition is usually very good. You can on occasion find an outstanding example like my mint condition Mobile Fidelity "Year of the Cat" for $8!

What? .....no "Phono" input on your receiver? As I discussed in a previous post about my A/V system, I bought one that did, but I have an even better solution. Above is an image of my Sony STR-AV770, that cost about $25. That's right, $25! I picked it up on eBay, which is over-run with old receivers. The fact is, mainstream Japanese firms of the 70's and 80's that took over the market made VERY good gear which rarely broke. Most of them have "Phono" inputs (some even have 2), and many are still working great. The secret here is to buy the receivers: leave the seprates (amps, pre-amps) to the collectors. They're too expensive. Then search for one in your area through the "advanced search" function. When you find one or more, contact the seller to ask if they will allow for a "local pickup". The issue is that quite often, it costs as much (or more) to ship these things as to buy them, and most sellers will be happy not to mess with that part. I guarantee, if you are patient and near any metropolitan area, you can find one for close to the price I paid for mine (applies to U.S. readers only of course...sorry). A hidden benefit is that these old receiver often sound better than they used to when connected to modern speakers! Of course, you'll need to carefully test it first by using an old pair of speakers before hooking it up to your pride and joy! Remember they are often 20+ years old by now!

Then of course; next year on August 12th, aka Vinyl Record Day, you can be doing what I am....computer in your lap.....optional.