lb1lf

5 ms·

1.
by lb1lf 16d ago
September 1st! Eeek! (Do note I try to go to Berlin once or twice a year to visit friends - so the news of the (more impending than I realized!) closure of the Hoyerswerda museum simply made me get this fall's visit booked...) I haven&
2.
by lb1lf 16d ago
Funny you should mention it, I was aware of the Zuse museum and figured I'd jump on a train next time I was in Berlin to go check it out. (In fairness, I've been thinking this the past four or five times I've gone to Berlin,
3.
by lb1lf 1mo ago
This. When in Japan for work, I always buy a couple of boxes of Hi-Unis (mostly 2H for me, HB for the kids) I started using them a couple of decades ago, but things escalated once my kids started school, seeing as I just sent them off with
4.
by lb1lf 2mo ago
Haha, we need to talk. (Current garage: Land Cruisers BJ42 and HZJ78, SI 80" Land Rover (full grille, thank you very much), 1972 RRC, a 1966 MGB V8 (retrofit, not original).) Oh, and a Passat for the missus. The kids call the Passat &#
5.
by lb1lf 2mo ago
close04 pretty much nailed it with his comment below. There is nothing wrong with the Submariner - quite the contrary, it is an iconic design and exceedingly well made. The 'problem' is that as it migrated (much like, say, Leica c
6.
by lb1lf 2mo ago
...and don't even get me started on people who buy a Rolex Submariner - the quintessential tool watch (and luxury symbol, by all means - but it wasn't always so) and then ask whether they should take any special precautions after
7.
by lb1lf 2mo ago
Oh yes. I used to have a VW van (a T4) which had had a V6 transplant and an aftermarket turbo retrofitted (not by me - I am a quite capable mechanic, but not THAT capable.) It was still a VW van, but it gave a few unsuspecting BMW drivers a
8.
by lb1lf 3mo ago
Secret-ish. One of the links terminated in a seeming boathouse at Andøya in Norway. It was a landmark. As in, if you were going fishing with a colleague and asked him which boathouse we'd embark from, he was as likely as not to say &#x
9.
by lb1lf 3mo ago
To stress how prolific tunnels are - if I drive from my home near Aalesund on the northwestern coast to the family seat at Voss (a bit inland from Bergen), some 360km/220mi or so, more than 1/4 of that distance is in tunnels. Can&
10.
by lb1lf 3mo ago
Not relevant at all, but would you happen to be a descendant of Heinz/Henry Ries, the photographer? (Reading Joseph Pearson's book on the Berlin airlift, in which he features prominently, do your last name stood out...)
11.
by lb1lf 4mo ago
Of course, they do serve a purpose, in that there's more often than not airbags in them, plus they provide structural integrity often lacking in older cars - so making the car safer for its occupants at the cost of anyone outside the c
12.
by lb1lf 4mo ago
It never ceases to amaze me how many drivers appear to not register blindingly obvious objects in their path. Ranging from the understandable, but unacceptable (Say, CBDR/Constant bearing, decreasing range, which makes a lot of drivers
13.
by lb1lf 4mo ago
It's called living, which has become insanely safe compared to what it used to be only a generation or two ago. Looking at the statistics here in my native Norway, children killed in traffic is down a couple of orders of magnitude sinc
14.
by lb1lf 4mo ago
Look at it from the bright side; not many people get to read their own obituaries.
15.
by lb1lf 5mo ago
Of course; I will jump through just about any hoop in order to keep buying their products precisely as I know that will buy both me and the end customer long term peace of mind.
16.
by lb1lf 5mo ago
Where Siemens really shines, is in their fanatical devotion to after sales. I rely on Siemens automation products at work. They give me end-of-life warnings a couple of years ahead - and maintain a spares inventory for a decade and change a
17.
by lb1lf 5mo ago
This. Also, Higginbotham's "Midnight in Chernobyl" is brilliant prose about the disaster, from the run-up through to the aftermath. At times, it reads more like a thriller (and a fast-paced one at that!) than prose.
18.
by lb1lf 5mo ago
In a very similar vein, Ars Technica did a very interesting story on the electromechanical targeting computers on WW2 battle ships a few years ago; the instructional videos embedded in the story are gold. https://arstechnica.com&
19.
by lb1lf 5mo ago
Haha, I can relate. Dabbled both with live recording (using a Sony PCM-M1 and a pair of very unobtrusive capsule mikes if the venue and band didn't have an enlightened recording policy, a DA-P1 and a pair of 416s if they did) and photo
20.
by lb1lf 6mo ago
I don't think you need to be very biased to consider this a war of aggression. Which, incidentally, is itself considered an international crime. So, these children would be alive and as well as one can be inside the theocracy that is I
21.
by lb1lf 6mo ago
Incidentally, $26B is a sum in the same ballpark as the cost of eradicating homelessness in the US, ending large-scale hunger worldwide or making significant progress towards safe drinking water for all or the eradication of malaria.
22.
by lb1lf 6mo ago
I guess that's the definition of 'iconic' - many a time I have approached someone wearing a Ramones or Motörhead T-shirt trying to chat a bit, only to be told 'Sorry, don't know the music at all, but the shirt is co
23.
by lb1lf 6mo ago
Presumably, yes. IANAL, and I have only heard about a couple of cases where people have been taxed under this statute - typically carpenters having built or renovated their own homes or cottages. (Their obvious disadvantage being, of course
24.
by lb1lf 6mo ago
Sorry, not VAT - but the value of the benefit you gain from working on your own property (presumably also if you're, say, a car mechanic and work on your own car, etc.) is subject to taxation. Mea culpa. The obligation to pay tax only
25.
by lb1lf 6mo ago
-Besides, in some jurisdictions, the taxman thought of that. If a Norwegian tradesman works on his own home, he's supposed to pay VAT on the value of the work he's done - not only on the materials used. I suspect such work is bein
26.
by lb1lf 6mo ago
Time for a classic, Soviet-era joke: A Soviet engineer needs some plumbing done in his apartment, and calls for a plumber. The plumber arrives, does his thing, and hands over the bill. The engineer is shocked. -'What, this is like a qu
27.
by lb1lf 6mo ago
I guess the accuracy of such solutions vary by jurisdiction; I just received my tax return for 2025 in Norway. The sum owed I had calculated at the end of 2025 was less than 2% off from the sum our IRS equivalent came up with. Their sum was
28.
by lb1lf 6mo ago
Anecdotally, I don't think hi-fi's decline has to do with cost - at least not cost alone. You can still get a more than decent system which will fit most living rooms for quite reasonable money - I just had a look at prices at a n
29.
by lb1lf 6mo ago
There's one (related) difference - an LP can hold approx. 45 minutes of music, a CD can hold 80-ish (The original spec called for 74, but I think the most I've seen on a single disc is 82-ish minutes). Unless an artist is very dis
30.
by lb1lf 6mo ago
Just so. The advantages of vinyl are basically making up for lack of self-discipline in humans. (I much prefer vinyl for that precise reason!) a) Since putting it on becomes more of a ritual - handling the album carefully, brushing off lint

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