Dave Garrett

So I figured that I wouldn't have to change my bank account number but I would be subject to collection efforts. This is really infuriating but my best option may ultimately be to try to raise another $60 out of my LP listings. And I can't even place negative feedback on this bitch's profile! This is strictly anecdotal, as it's never happened to me, and PayPal may have changed their rules regarding this, but I have heard of many instances in the past where PayPal sucked money out of users' bank accounts without asking when their PayPal balance was insufficient to cover a claim. I believe it used to be explicitly stated in their T&C that they reserved the right to do so. That is why you should never have your primary bank account linked to a PayPal account. They may require you to have a bank account in order to use their service, but smart PayPal users will set up a bank account exclusively for use with PayPal, maintain only the minimum balance in it sufficient to keep the account active (in my case, around $50), and sweep the PayPal account of incoming funds as soon as they clear. eBay and PayPal are definitely gamed in favor of buyers these days, and their seller protection policies are a joke.

Was hoping to make it to the Houston date later today, but I'm flying out on a business trip very early Monday morning and still have some work to finish before then.

Well alrighty then! Did you happen to notice who distributed it??? The fabulous Treniers. Any relation to the plain ol' Ordinary Treniers!??? Not sure this could be called ordinary, but...

I used to practically live off Bustelo and Marlboro Reds. Quit smoking at least 15 years ago, and essentially gave up caffeine a couple of years ago after being strongly advised to by my doctor. I'll occasionally have a Coke or iced tea, but no more high-octane coffee - now it's decaf espresso for me (and I'm fully aware of the cognitive dissonance those two words tend to inspire when put together). Never knew Bustelo had an instant version, but if it's comparable to the regular stuff it's gotta be good!

My discs finally showed up today. Never got a reply to any of my attempts to contact them, including the Paypal dispute, but they did throw an extra disc into the order as a bonus. All's well that ends well.

Nope. Anyone can do it. I think the iPhones all come with a SIM eject tool now, but a paperclip can certainly be used as well: Removing SIM card prior to iPhone repair

Our 8-year-old GSD, Gretchen, taken this afternoon. She is small for the breed, about 60 pounds, and people frequently assume she is still a puppy.

Crap - I just opened a Paypal dispute right before logging in here and seeing this. I'd also been thinking that I was getting close to the 45-day deadline to do so, and when I finally looked at a calendar and counted the days, I didn't hesitate any longer. Not good.

Wow, I hadn't checked out the link yet when I posted that, and didn't realize that they were offering the complete run on their site. And at no charge, to boot. Amazing.

The company that partnered with the New Yorker to produce that set, Bondi Digital, also has produced a set containing a complete run of Rolling Stone and all of the 50s issues of Playboy. After an initial splash with those sets amid much talk of further projects, there wasn't much in the way of news for several years, leading me to believe that Bondi had fallen on hard times (especially after seeing all of the earlier sets remaindered and widely available for cheap). However, I just stumbled across this, and even though the announcement is a year old, I'm hopeful that the later sets will see the light of day, as I've really wanted the 60s Playboy issues ever since I first heard about the 50s set. SI would be fantastic as well, and without trying very hard I'm sure I could come up with dozens of other periodicals that I'd love to see get the digital treatment. The only drawback is that it's unfortunate that Bondi chose a proprietary file format, but that's not too surprising. I have to wonder how usable their sets will be with the computers and OSes in use ten years from now. I suppose there will always be emulators that can address issues of backwards compatibility.

Do the scratches affect play? If not, I'd leave them alone. If so, I'd avoid the cheap kits, which probably won't do anything except fill up the playing surface with cloudy swirls. What you need is someone that has one of the professional-grade resurfacing machines. I've never used them, but I've heard good things about Azuradisc's mail-in service. Supposedly they've got a pretty good success rate at making discs look almost like-new.

Just curious if you got a response. Still no sign of my order placed February 6, and as yet no response to the email I sent last Thursday inquiring about its status.

I've bought several things from blowitoutahere and was likewise favorably impressed with them. Will definitely patronize them again. My only experiences with MovieMars have been on eBay, but based on that, I'd have to conclude that they list items which they do not have in stock and are unable to obtain from their distributor. I've run across far too many listings from them for out-of-print items that there's no way they could possibly have, and the one time I bit on one of those listings when they were literally the only vendor anywhere that had the item listed at any price, sure enough, they couldn't fulfill it. To be fair, they did issue a refund pretty quickly when I requested one after several weeks had elapsed with no sign of the item.

If you're considering DLT, do some research on LTO before making a decision. I'm no tape-format expert, but from what I've read LTO is the format of choice for many in the archival community, incorporating both backwards compatibility in addition to a well-defined path forward for format upgrades. The downside is that I believe LTO requires a significantly larger up-front hardware investment than DLT does, but again, I haven't actually priced drives. DLT, SDLT, LTO FAQ (lots more where this came from via a Google search for "DLT LTO")

This bears repeating. For data that you absolutely can't afford to lose, you need redundant backups with at least one set stored offsite. Some folks keep three sets of backups with two stored offsite in different locations. Hard drives can fail from lack of use as well as constant use (and there's plenty of debate as to which is worse for a drive), so make sure you spin up the offsite backups on a scheduled basis once in a while. If you're using USB external drives, you could rotate the offsite backup drives in and the onsite backup drives out every so often, assuming that the onsite backup drives would see semi-regular activity. Any archivist will tell you that a migration path for archived data is essential, especially in an era of rapid technological advancements where what was a standard storage format 5-10 years ago is most likely now obsolete. So plan on replacing the drives (or whatever storage media you decide on) and migrating the data every so often even if they still appear to be functioning perfectly. Don't think of your backups as something to just put on a shelf and forget about until you need them, but rather something that needs to be actively managed.

Sounds like she was more than a little chesty.

Interesting, but it's clear (and they state as much) that this analysis only holds true for items that are plentiful and readily available. For scarce or collectible items, it's extremely doubtful that the same logic applies. I'd bet the results would have been quite different if the DVDs used in the study had been OOP titles that are highly in-demand by collectors and tend to be expensive when they appear on the secondary market.

Same here, except I ordered on the 6th.

Iirc there are music-rights issues with EYES ON THE PRIZE that have hindered its being sold on DVD. That's unfortunate. I only saw parts of it when first screened here. I'd find it really useful now as a teach this topic to 16-17 year olds. It's not so much music rights issues, as it is the archival footage that comprises so much of EYES ON THE PRIZE that's prevented it from a DVD release. When the series was originally produced, the rights for the archival footage were only cleared for a limited amount of time, so the producers have had to renegotiate clearances for a DVD release - and the asking price for much of the footage has increased significantly in the interim. PBS did finally release the series on DVD several years ago, but only for educational use, and its steep price ($400+) reflected that restriction. However, they are apparently releasing a consumer version that is much more reasonably priced next month, although it's unclear if any footage had to be replaced as a result of rights issues: PBS DVD - EYES ON THE PRIZE I have both EYES and its sequel EYES II on laserdisc. Both are essential, and it's a crime that they've been so hard to see in the years since they were originally broadcast.

Shout! Factory issued the first season of Parker Lewis on DVD last year, and the second season just came out a couple of weeks ago: Season One Season Two

There's been quite a bit of discussion about this at the Hoffman board. Consensus seemed to be that there was a significant chance of winding up with a bootleg if you purchased it from a third-party seller (I may be oversimplifying, as I'll admit to barely skimming some of the Beatles threads before my eyes start to glaze over). Sounds like the time for screwing around with the seller directly has passed, if you've sent him that many emails. Go directly to Amazon and let them handle it.

http://www.revenantrecords.com/ayler/disc6.html I think I've mentioned this here before, but I sent them an email via that link seeking a replacement disc 6 well over a year ago and never got a response. Others have reported the same results. So I'd have to say that the chances of getting a replacement at this point are somewhere between slim and none - although I'd love to be proven wrong.

I recently upgraded my Denon AVR-3200 to a Denon AVR-5700, which was their flagship AV receiver about ten years ago. This thing is built like a tank - the latter-day units can't compare when it comes to build quality. It originally sold for $2800, but I only paid $300 for it, and it's in mint condition. The lack of HDMI switching makes it a non-starter for some, but as I don't yet have an HDMI-enabled TV and I'm using it far more for music than video, I'm quite happy with it. Also just got a Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai DVD player to use primarily as a CD/SACD/DVD-A deck, which should be a nice step up from the B-stock Sony 5-disc SACD changer I've been using. When new, it was about $1200 - I paid a little over $100. I'm quite content to upgrade my system with "obsolete" equipment that sounds great but doesn't cost a fortune.