rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Dec 13, 2007 13:47:48 GMT
How do we scientifically pick the right cable though? What is the output of my source and input of the amp not doing to allow for such a great difference. Is what I am actually hearing (except for RF modulation) just variations in frequency response due to capacitance and dialectric losses? Do we even have appreciable dialectric losses in the microvolt range. The kilovolts of one single frequency in a long distance power line must surely have other problems that do NOT scale down to audio.
Can't we design audio gear to MINIMISE these effects thus guaranteeing greater listening pleasure regardless?
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Dec 6, 2007 15:10:37 GMT
I didn't get it. No ghost, no shell, just some nervous japanese animation with a couple of things blowing up. I guess I am too old for it!
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Dec 6, 2007 12:35:20 GMT
Worry is often a sign that we do not remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. The old testament verse was not just talking about religion. If we do not turn off/turn down on a regular basis, we turn daily tension into habit which does foster and multiply itself.
Only when we take a regular day off and treat ourselves extra nicely, do we have a chance to tank up for the perils of the coming week. It does not matter if you go to the sauna, local indoor pool, for many of us church. The important thing is the focus on things that we perceive to be good for ourselves. Things not related to our regular activities, but with a potential for "improvement".
I have taken trumpet players that have lost their ability to play (because they can't perform under pressure anymore due to a nervous disorder) back to success by giving them an unrelated activity to master. I try to start with swimming. 200 meters the first time and then try to increase by 50 meters per session. When in reasonable shape, 1000 meters takes 25-30 minutes of relaxed swimming! On those free days, taking time out to cook something special and other nice things are on the agenda. After 2 or 3 months, the problem is usually gone AND those people have something else that they can talk about, relate to and be proud of. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be a self-help situation. It only works when we have someone to provide motivation and help keep dedicated. I do not think that Pink Floyd should go this alone. It works more reliably with the right amount of personal attention. Any ideas?
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Dec 5, 2007 11:10:34 GMT
Sandy, you are absolutely right about corruption, we can use cigarettes as a great example of "looking the other way". Still, we are not only talking about America. No other health system has verified these charges. The real problem is that a "normal" Joe does not have clear access to any truth. There is equal amounts of pseudo science on both sides of this issue. To be honest, I think this "report" is not 100% serious. The documented danger with aspartame is not even mentioned, but the alcohol issue is purposefully misleading! There is reportedly no possibility for a reversal of the sickness, so how that guys sister got "well on the way to recovery" will probably remain a mystery. I am sure that the other points with proper research can be put into proper perspective. The sugar industry has a lot to lose and would certainly support rumours of toxic competition! Where do we find PROOF?
I think it is more important to figure out what most people buy artificial sweeteners for. I maintain for the WRONG reasons. They are just lying to themselves about the balance of carbs and other things. If they were REALLY interested in their HEALTH, a much different balance of foodstuffs would come into play. Even more important, they would find TIME to cook AND eat that is conducive to proper enjoyment of the meal as well as digesting it. Fast food is not necessarily BAD, but wolfing down ANY food is not healthy. It is possible to maintain any level of calories, carbs or anything else in a responsible fashion. The main ingredient is TIME. We need to reserve TIME for important things in life like food, family and music. An alibi with artificial sweetners is just that. For people with diabetes, a closer monitoring should be in place anyway. A negative reaction to aspartam should be easily noticed.
Just for the record, when I was very young we drank a beverage called Kool-Aid. It came in various flavors and had some artificial sweetener (I think sodium saccharine). That ingredient came under fire, was banned and Kool-Aid switched to sugar, increasing the package size by a factor of 4. This shows perhaps in a small way that there is hope.
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Dec 5, 2007 10:21:38 GMT
It seems that this could very well be a hoax! You really do not know who to believe! www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.265/healthissue_detail.aspwww.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,990167,00.html I believe if this stuff is as toxic as claimed, there would have been a massive class action suit in the US and Monsanto would have had serious problems. I don't think that we can rule out the toxicity of any food, natural or artificial. Hell, you can drown on a glass of water (which is why I drink unsweetened beer!).
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Dec 6, 2007 13:01:27 GMT
Subject: Fabulous bit of historical knowledge
Ever wonder where the word "shit" comes from. Well here it is:
Certain types of manure used to be transported (as everything was back then) by ship. In dry form it weighs a lot less, but once water (at sea) hit it. It not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by-product is methane gas.
As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen; methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern. BOOOOM!
Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was discovered what was happening.
After that, the bundles of manure where always stamped with the term "S.H.I.T" on them which meant to the sailors to "Ship High In Transit." In other words, high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.
Bet you didn't know that one.
##################################### Here I always thought it was a golf term. This sounds good but is reduced to bull - shit as seen by the following:
I can't count the number of correspondents who have assured me this is true. Why is this lie so appealing? Why do people love this false story so much that they cling to it like an idol and cast their sanity beneath its juggernaut wheels? This bit of fiction has been traced back, in a different form, to a Usenet posting from 1999. That one merely made reference to the smell. This is all pretty harmless, as a set-up for the "golf" punchline. But because it has the look of authentic history, it has begun to circulate as a legitimate etymology.
It has in common with a number of the other most common false etymologies a tendency to derive words from acronyms (The ethnic slur wop is said to represent "without passport," and f**k is variously said to stand for "fornication under consent of king" or "for unlawful carnal knowledge").
This Internet fabrication is a deliberate and audacious lie meant to complicate that which is simple, mislead, and give secret pleasure to the anonymous author of the cleverness. It is the equivalent of a computer virus. It is, to borrow from Richard Dawkins, a false meme.
To someone with a bit of linguistics in his books, the story sets off more red flags than a May Day parade. The first and biggest is its reliance on acronyms. Sir Ernest Gowers, in his revisions to the second edition of "Fowler's Modern English Usage" (1965, p.116) traces the rise of the acronym to World War I (ANZAC, etc.), but it really didn't becom a common method of word formation in English until World War II. The word acronym itself wasn't coined until 1943. The lack of a need for such a word suggests the degree to which acronyms were not a part of daily life until then.
As Gowers illustrates with many examples, modern wars breed acronyms. The American Civil War, the first modern war, produced a vast corpus of correspondence and official papers. But I find scant use of acronyms in them. The North's black regiments occasionally are named as U.S.C.T. (for United States Colored Troops). But these usages did not transpire into the common language of soldiers or civilians. Other Civil War abbreviations used today, such as ANV for "Army of Northern Virginia," are popular among modern writers, but nowhere in the Official Records.
The insult son of a bitch is recorded from 1707; the abbreviated form SOB is on record only from 1918. POW for prisoner of war was first attested 1919, but it was not popularized until World War II. A.S.A.P. for as soon as possible is not recorded before 1955, and again it turns up first in military slang.
So acronyms in English are on the whole a 20th century phenomenon. The word OK (c.1839) is a very rare exception (if the most accepted theory of its origins is the right one), as is n.g. for "no good" (1838). And note how these words, even after more than 170 years, are still "felt" as abbreviations and require no elaborate Internet stories.
Before that, there were "acrostics." Those are words in which each letter in turn is taken as the first letter of another word or name, which taken together hold some significance. An example is the word cabal, which wits noted in 1673 matched the initial letters of the five intriguing ministers of Charles II (Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale). This was a sort of word-play that had gone on for centuries in verse composition. But cabal was a real word: it had been in print for at least 60 years before someone happened to notice this temporary political connotation. The initials weren't the source of the word.
The word shit has a long and well-documented history, far older than any large-scale organized sea-trade in northern Europe. Anglo-Saxon leechdom books use scittan in reference to cattle having diarrhea. A Latin text from 1118 refers to "Lues animalium, quæ Anglice Scitta vocatur, Latine autem fluxus interaneorum dici potest."
There are many examples of the verb from the 14th century [e.g., from 1387: þey wolde ... make hem a pitte ... whan þey wolde schite ...; and whanne þey hadde i-schete þey wolde fille þe pitte agen."]. The noun is attested from the 16th century, both in reference to excrement and to contemptible people.
The acronym theory of the origin of shit can't explain the related words in other languages, such as German Scheiss, Dutch schijt, Old Norse skita, and Lithuanian sikti, which come from the same prehistoric root. As far as I know, there's no corresponding acronym to "ship high in transit" in the merchant marine history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Which brings up another point. It's impossible to prove a negative, and I'm not the world's leading expert on shipping, but I have done a great deal of historical research, including detailed examination of ship's manifests going back to the 17th century and studies of trade and tariffs and commerce, and I've never found anyone anywhere shipping manure. People shipped a lot of strange things over long distances (bricks, for instance). But if there's one thing that an all-seeing providence has liberally supplied to every inhabited corner of the globe, it's shit. Who ever transported it often enough that shit-shipping evolved a jargon? Guano -- bird droppings as a source of nitrates -- became an important article of trade in the mid-1800s, but this is much too late for shit, and anyway guano is guano, shit is shit.
A correspondent notes another problem: "I am a sailor. Things go below deck to stay dry ... they don't generally get wet there." Another, a physics teacher, writes, [M]ethane gas would not 'build up' in the hold of a ship. It is lighter than air and in any unsealed space would dissipate upward fast enough that an explosive mixture would not accumulate."
So, the acronym theory for the origin of "shit" breaks down because:
the word itself is a good 1,000 years older than the common use of acronyms; the original form of the word (Anglo-Saxon sc-, which regularly evolved into M.E. sh-) does not correspond to the supposed acronym; the verb is the original form, the noun derives from it; the acronym supposes the noun came first; no one has produced a single instance of this supposed acronym from any old mercantile record or ship's manifest; in fact, no one has ever established that there was a custom of shipping manure; the word has cognates in many other languages, including ones outside Germanic, for which no acronym theory of origin makes sense; It doesn't fit the facts, it requires a very elaborate supposition for which there is not the slightest evidence, and there is a much simpler, saner explanation for the word, the only drawback of which is that it doesn't make a very good Internet joke.
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rowuk
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2 ?'s
Dec 5, 2007 10:39:33 GMT
Post by rowuk on Dec 5, 2007 10:39:33 GMT
OK, now we have some facts to deal with! Sandy, a UPS is designed to handle a certain amount of current, above which it shuts down. It is not in some kind of a "bypass" mode until the going gets rough. A unit like this has to have a fuse at its rated input consumption (generally an electronic fuse with auto reset), and that would be the brick wall in any case. VA is not the same as watts (yes I know that we learned differently, check out this link for proof: www.apcc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BR900)Here we see 900VA = 540 watts. The explanation is here: www.etasys.com/Main/ABCs/CalcVAWATTS.asp This happens to be the rating of Mertons power supply on the PC, leaving no room during the start up surge for the monitor. Once the PC is up and running, no problem! A plainly audible "clack" is a very bad sign (especially if you can hear it above the graphic card and PS fan). It means the drive is accessing sectors designed as "absolute last resort". We have this in computer centers that I support on a more than occasional basis. Replace the drive, it will fail. I do not mean noises that are barely audible. A barely audible click, click, click is not something to worry about, "CLACK, CLACK, CLACK!" is.
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rowuk
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2 ?'s
Dec 4, 2007 23:15:26 GMT
Post by rowuk on Dec 4, 2007 23:15:26 GMT
Merton, the UPS shutting down just showns too much drain at startup. This can happen when you have a 250 watt UPS and a PC with a 300 watt power supply or combination of Monitor/PC power that exceeds the UPS rating. This is simple math, so add up what it says on the power supply of the PC and on the sticker on the back of your monitor and compare that to the rating of the UPS. When starting any electrical items, there is a power surge, sometimes in excess of the sticker rating.
The only thing in a PC that could give you a domino effect is the HD or CD/DVD drive. In both cases, this is a sign of immenent failure and is cause for concern. If the HD is making that "clacking" sound, forget about reformatting to save the drive, it only makes that noise when it has run out of spare sectors. I have had several IBM/Hitachi and Samsung drives with this problem. Acronis is very recommendable!
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Nov 24, 2007 16:19:30 GMT
we do not need a saucerful of secrets to discuss tranny mounting. We just need to determine if we have a top, bottom or side mounting tranny................... From the nature of some of the posting here, the naughty stuff stays pretty public too!
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Nov 29, 2007 11:28:01 GMT
no... i meant home pc stuff. how does one back up saved files and programs and whatnot? how often should one do so? Merton, a backup is just a copy of important stuff. It is possible to automatically copy files on a regular basis, the question comes up to where. My firm belief is that anything mechanical WILL fail, the only question is when. That being said, my backup strategy for personal data is all my important stuff to an external hard drive and irreplacable stuff additionally to CD or DVD. My experience with DVD has not been very good, with read problems starting about 4 years after burning them. I have had NO CD failure yet. If my main HD died and the backup too, I would still be able to piece just about everything together again! The program that I use for the HD backup is RSYNC and I only back up documents/music/video. For all of the programs that I use, I have the installation disks/CD/DVDs for and if my HD died, I would do a clean reinstall with the latest drivers. My backup to external harddrive is daily (automatic) and to CD or DVD monthly (using a CD burning program). RAID means Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks and it requires at least one additional disk to jump in if the primary one fails. This all happens automatically and is used to keep the primary system more dependable. Murphys law dictates that security systems destroy other systems and that seems to be the issue at HeadFi......................
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Nov 26, 2007 9:05:47 GMT
Wow, one and a half years since the last reasonable backup, a migration WITHOUT protection. DIY at its best!
I think the site name should change to AnusFi.
Um - does rockgrotto have a regular backup on tape or on a machine NOT in the hosting datacenter?...................... Just interested...........
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Nov 24, 2007 16:12:58 GMT
this is about the most amateur mistake any IT person could make - migration without a full tested backup.
Don't believe the BS about running out of RAM. This is what happens when DIY mentality shows up in the enterprise.
Hope none of you had the family jewels tied up in HeadFi. The head has been placed where the sun doesn't shine!
RAID6 is RAID5 with a hot spare - not 2 parity disks. 160GB of swap doesn't tell us much either - except that the NAS is probably unix/linux based.
With LTO4 (Ultrium Tape) 1,6TB/Cartridge) backup devices available very inexpensively and external disk drives dirt cheap, there just is no excuse!
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Nov 24, 2007 0:12:21 GMT
The minus happened when Grahams categories were temporarily suspended and hidden from sight a couple of weeks ago. I assume that there are links somewhere to 13 threads that didn't make it back to visibility - or got arbitrarily moved to another place. The power to move things around does not mean that everything works the same way afterwards!
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Nov 23, 2007 7:06:20 GMT
Cell phone! Easy enough to test! Make sure that no switched on mobile phone gets near your computer for an hour or two.
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Nov 26, 2007 9:09:19 GMT
If she was capable of giving evidence, she obviously was not hit hard enough, or did not get the message ;-) I'll bet she got hit again after the court session.
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Nov 22, 2007 22:31:33 GMT
The turkey definitely will not be raw! I think the correct temperature insures that the skin has the right amount of "crispiness". Lower temperatures may not get the skin perfect.
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Nov 22, 2007 12:36:01 GMT
The pioneers had a big advantage over modern day homo sapiens: the generally prevalent sanitary conditions kept them in constant contact with and built resistance to various bacteria and yeast infections. That kept the potential damage from dirty pots and pans at a much lower level. Just letting our kids play in the mud would be an improvement instead of beating them up when they come home dirty! Merton, you may have to change a lot of habits to keep isolated pioneering activities from ruining your day........... Sols advice of burning off the rest is probably safest, if you like that barbeque taste on everything that comes out of that skillet!
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Nov 16, 2007 11:58:16 GMT
The articles on skin effect were very interesting, but offered nothing new. No one stated that the cables all sound the same. I have experienced a "difference". The problem is the bullshit reasons by the marketing people. Cable "sound" can be very easily manipulated using resistance, capacitance, inductance and reactance. All measurable and easy to dose. I really do not need a "miracle" to make my sound system enjoyable. 10" more soundstage, additional "slam, bang, thank you madame" or "air" also does not tell me if my reproduction is more accurate or euphonic. The power switch is the greatest isolation device! (or 20 years of marraige to the wrong girl..............)
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Nov 16, 2007 11:05:33 GMT
This is getting out of hand worldwide. In Germany, they have had to move kindergardens or pre-schools because the neighbors complain about the "NOISE POLLUTION". The only people home during the day are retired people which have obviously lost touch with society and force their desire for "law and order" on the community.
If this guy was a "messy" simply not capable of cleaning he needs help and not jail. It does not take a great mind to figure that out, so I can only assume that that community has polititians that are even a cut below "not great"!
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Nov 15, 2007 9:56:45 GMT
I use a UPS with built in regeneration (APC RT series 1500 watt) for mobile recording applications. One of the biggest pains in the ass was the fan that keeps the regenerator from overheating. I replaced them with lower noise, higher output Papst fans and added thermal regulation. The noise is down to a tolerable level but only for location recording where the equipment is not near the microphones.
At home, I hear an audible difference on any gear with a "just adequate" power supply. My equipment with proper regulation sounds the same regardless.
The difference when recording live is dramatic. It is disgusting how much DIRT dimmed high power lamps or flourescent lighting dump into the mains (and as RF into the air). I have found that you cannot shield enough (although that can raise capacitance which can limit frequency response). Proper choice of microphone cable is critical for great results. Many lamp bulbs also generate audio frequency noise (buzzing) when dimmed!
My advice is to make sure that all of your gear has well regulated, stable power supplies with proper filtering. THAT will give you the most bang for the buck AND minimise the need for boutique voodoo! I believe that there is a market for common sense wall warts of various voltages AC and DC. I just have not found a company that builds them (except for the Little Pinkie).
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Nov 18, 2007 22:50:20 GMT
I'll bet that there will be owners suing Apple because of battery life after about a year or two. No user replaceable cells!
I wonder how tight the bass is? The soundstage looks pretty wide! Is the PS AC or DC?
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Nov 4, 2007 18:14:41 GMT
Entertainment is most likely the correct word for it. Music is more "substantial", but that is lost on spoiled brats of any age! The shame is that the courts have to try and instill a sense of value that Britneys parents did not succeed with. What are the chances of that working? Do you know of any lawyers that would tell there clients to grow up and get a life?
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Oct 30, 2007 16:54:03 GMT
I am sure that the picture quality changed with time. The caps and resistors change value over time, just like with fine audio. Static images would "burn" (a thermal warping of the shadow mask) in if they were left on long enough with sufficient intensity.
I sold computer monitors to the fashion design industry for a while, and it was AMAZING ($$$$$$$$$$) how much effort was placed on perfect reproduction of color. Those CRTs had to turned on for at least 30 minutes to stabilize the color!
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Nov 2, 2007 11:58:48 GMT
The easiest way for people with inferiority complexes to feel important is to trash someone else. At that point it is still only one problem. When other posters pile on or start to argue, the problem multiplies. I generally do not agree with censorship, even in this case. What does banning really accomplish? It is only a sign to the decent that there are arbitrary limits. The only effective way to deal with the dickless is through off line confrontation in the form of (in this order) direct contact, therapy, big stick, gun. The anonymity is what gives these people a sense of safety! THAT is what needs to be removed! Publish the idiots address, telephone number and picture. Want to take bets that things change?
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rowuk
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Post by rowuk on Oct 29, 2007 13:34:59 GMT
Could we have a forum extra for garbage from other fori (the plural of forum?)?
Somehow, I am disturbed when things like this end up right next to the high quality posts from the Slee-Team.
As a rule we do not defecate in our kitchen sinks (although the output through the drain would land in the same place), we have an extra room for that! Nobody minds much if it stinks in there, but the kitchen?
Actually, I am not sure that I need a link to garbage at all. If I am interested in foreign opinions, I will check out the others when I am in the mood!
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