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Messages - juansolo

#46
Open Discussion / Re: Dad conundrum (what do I do)
February 26, 2020, 08:42:30 AM
The first three (ie the ones that started in 1977). Then carefully tell them that all the other films were just a terrible mistake (Rogue One aside).

Follow those with Raiders and The Last Crusade.
#47
Open Discussion / Re: What are you playing? (games)
February 08, 2020, 09:14:34 AM
Just finished The Outer Worlds. Kinda like a cross between Fallout 3 and Borderlands. Not the bug-fest of a Bethesda game though, and certainly better on the RPG side of things than they have been for a long, long time. It was pretty good, the right length, all good.

Currently playing through Wreckfest, which is the spiritual successor to the Destruction Derby games on the Playstation. It's bloody brilliant in every way. Easily my favourite racing game for a very long time.
#48
Open Discussion / Re: The Sounds of the Mudbunny
January 26, 2020, 08:56:54 AM
Also that's an older version of the spreadsheet, the last one is here for the mudbunny and associated boards. It also has all the notes attached.

If you're building on either Grind's Ultrastoner board, or our Yorkshire Pi board (there are a couple out there...), this spreadsheet has even more.

FWIW my site is now on a Raspberry Pi under my TV and it appears to be super stable now (famous last words), so provided I don't change ISP, and I remember to keep logging into FreeDNS every now and then, juansolo.mooo.com should get you there and the spreadsheets live in Stompage under Muffage. That said, I haven't updated anything in ages... If anyone fancies adding to the sheets and wants to carry on, I'm happy to e-mail them over.
#49
Open Discussion / Re: The Sounds of the Mudbunny
January 26, 2020, 08:51:05 AM
1971 Triangle - A traced example of what it says on the tin. IMO one of the best sounding muffs out there. Can nail a lot of muff tones that people have in their heads.

Skreddy ?Lady - Thick sounding muff with a massive bottom end. Really rather lovely.
#50
Open Discussion / Re: Top Albums of the Decade
January 19, 2020, 06:10:44 PM
Sleeping Pulse - Under The Same Sky


Clutch - Earth Rocker


Stone Sour - House of Gold and Bones (both parts)


Riverside - Shrine of New Generation Slaves


You get two of these because this is such an awesome video also.


A couple just squeezing in

Sully Erna - Avalon


Monster Magnet - Mastermind


Lisa Cuthbert - Obsticles
#51
The Witcher (TV Series) - This is going to be a long one. To start, I've not read the books and though I have the games, I've not played them. I have an idea what goes on however. I am also very much into fantasy fiction in all it's guises (film, TV, book, computer games, desktop RPGs).

This series has problems...

If you've played D&D, this is obviously very heavily influenced by it. Not a bad thing as it's a rich well to tap, however it often feels a bit like D&D fan fiction. Some of the dialogue particularly so and not in a good way. This is somewhere in-between GOT and LOTR, it wants the boobs and the swearing, but it also wants the monsters and the adventure. It's hard to explain but GOT has a grittiness that fits it's world that is mostly politics. LOTR is high fantasy, which is what I think this is trying to be, but it's jarring for some reason. The closest to the tone I think it's trying to achieve for me would be the original Conan the Barbarian, which it's just not hitting. It's often too lightweight for that.

The direction is the next big problem. The story spans many years, with some characters that age slowly or not at all, and others that are supposed to but don't appear to. The timelines are mixed up constantly and there is absolutely no explaination of this when it happens. So the first thing you realise you're not in the current timeline is that a character is missing, oh, one second he's in an older timeline? Hang on aren't those kids grown up now? Is that the grand daughter or the daughter? Who is this now? What is the law of surprise? This is easily the biggest problem.

If I'm being picky, some of the relationships form suddenly out of nowhere with all the depth of an anime. The main character has little development. The two leading ladies get more, and indeed Jenifer's story is quite well realised and interesting. Though her motivations change/evolve over what it supposed to be a long period of time, but it's compressed over a couple of episodes. So it again seems a bit jarring and just makes her seem a bit schiziod. Ciri we get a little of, but a lot of that is obviously to be revealed. The three of them are well cast and genuinely interesting characters. Jenifer so far being the most layered. I honestly wish the first season had just been her... But that's just me wanting them to do justice to an interesting character.

The three actors who play these roles are what saves the show for me. Geralt, despite as a character having all the nuance of Judge Dredd, is well played, as are the two ladies. I really want to know where they go from here. The 'bad guys' are there... We haven't had enough of them yet for them to be anything than 'ominous evil threat'. Which is dull to be fair, but they haven't been the focus of this season. If anything I feel they've tried to do too much with too little time. It all feels like it's rushing to introduce everyone and some parties are just not getting the love.

So there you have it, it's flawed, but ultimately interesting bordering on enjoyable. What it does do is make me want to see where it goes from here with a hope that they employ better writers and directors, and that the show runners learn to slow down a bit, and try to be more coherent.
#52
I have a friend who buys EVERYTHING on UHDBD... I'll get to see it eventually whether I like it or not ;)
#53
Quote from: somnif on December 20, 2019, 09:53:20 AMIn the end the trilogy feels like most of JJ Abrahm's TV series, where there is an amazing opening, then it rapidly becomes apparent that he had no long term plan in mind and just writes on the fly hoping it will turn out. Oh this was cool (plot veers left) Oh that's neat (plot veers right) ooo the fans like that (spirals around it for a while) wait now where was I going again?

Hit the nail on the head there. The guy has so much form in this that I'm surprised no one has noticed. I think the guy has a few great ideas, but has no idea whatsoever how to end something in a satisfying way. Him and Lindelhoff are two big warning signs for me to not go see something for exactly this reason.
#54
Yeah, I'll be giving that one a miss. I made it through Last Jedi, which at best I can say that I'd rather watch that again rather than Alien Covenant or Alien vs Predator 2...

I'm quite happy that we got an original trilogy that's good, with a prequel I liked (Rogue One). The first three episodes of The Mandalorian I've merged into one to make a really good stand alone Star Wars film also (think it's been a bit lightweight since then, but watchable). I'm good. Just waiting for the rest of Empire to be completed by project 4K80. 4K77 and 4K83 are already done and quite simply the only way left to watch the original trilogy as they were without owning the Laserdiscs.
#55
Open Discussion / Re: Solder
December 19, 2019, 11:28:08 PM
Quote from: EBK on December 19, 2019, 09:08:14 PM
It's not that lead-free solder is bad.  It just eats your soldering iron tip very quickly, produces joints that always look "cold", and feels like someone mixed your solder with sand.  Some people love it!

Yeah, the same sort of people who think the 'L' in solder is silent for some reason...

;)
#56
Open Discussion / Re: Solder
December 19, 2019, 09:33:50 AM
Quote from: lars on December 18, 2019, 10:20:38 PM
Lead solder. It's in all that 70-year-old stuff that is still working.
Lead-free solder. It's in all that 3-year-old stuff you see in the dumpster. Yeah. RoHS is "saving" the environment. The oceans are full of plastic...not lead.

Yep, with knobs on.
#57
Open Discussion / Re: Solder
December 16, 2019, 04:50:10 PM
Warton Metals Autosol RA Alloy No. 1. Solder content: 50% tin, 1.4% copper, 48.6% lead. Needless to say, that's not ROHS compliant. But as long as you're not selling your stuff commercially, no need to use the lead free shit.
#58
Open Discussion / Re: What are you playing? (games)
December 16, 2019, 12:16:57 PM
I have no idea how it differs on the PC (I played it on Dreamcast), but Grandia II is my all time favourite. I just love the combat mechanic and the plot just made me chuckle. Millenia may be the greatest J-RPG character ever. The protagonist is a bit of a dick, which amuses me also.

It's a game where it's possible to avoid combat, however I enjoyed it so much I fought everything, by the end of the game I was pretty much a god I was so over levelled. Still didn't detract from it however.

#59
Open Discussion / Re: What are you playing? (games)
December 16, 2019, 08:02:57 AM
It's a J-RPG thing. as a long time player of them, I can't say I noticed it. That said, Undertale just didn't gel with me at all either. I was really struggling to see why it was so well regarded...
#60
Open Discussion / Re: Of Fuzzes, Opamps and Buffers...
November 23, 2019, 08:21:10 PM
A lot of old fuzzes just don't work right with a buffer between it and the guitar (a wah will likely screw things up also). They rely on the guitar to essentially be part of the circuit to do their thing. To avoid these problems you need to look at muff derived fuzzes or something more 'modern'.