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Re: Stargazing... - 5 days ago

Either will need a tripod for longish viewing, but I'd try the 15s without to see if short term biewoing is viable at all, by bracing myself or the binocs. I have some light 15x70s and they can be handheld for short periods and longer if you steady your elbows on the roof of the car or something similar. I went in for the binoc tripod and it does work but also works against the freedom and qu

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: Stargazing... - 5 days ago

Quote Same thing as your phone camera, the best binocs are the ones you have with you. Uh that's a bit of a stretch. Maybe some people keep some kit with them in case theres some astral-emergency or sudden event.. Tried to be pithy and failed. You can get binocs out and viewing in 10 seconds and they can be tossed in the car wherever you go. Anywhere. Even the easiest grab n go scop

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: For new parents out there... - 5 days ago

We got normal people Gmail addys for the kids early on which they've been using throughout. If they want LazerShark420@gmail.com they're welcome to it but the older one now doing college applications has a respectable, useful address which is helpful.

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: Stargazing... - 5 days ago

When people want a telescope I always recommend using typical 10x50 binoculars at a reasonably dark sky a few time beforehand. Binocs are dead easy to use, point n shoot. You can see loads of things with them, just get a star map for finding things and have at it. I have 10x50s and 15x70s and the 10x50s win more because they're handheld. Same thing as your phone camera, the best binocs are

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: Happy Birthday 11/27 MR Forum Member archipirata - 6 days ago

Happy Birthday archipirata!

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: Happy Birthday 11/25 MR Forum Member Lew Zealand - 6 days ago

Thanks everyone!!! Nothing like having a national holiday conveniently scheduled around your birthday so you don't have to work.

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: power grab - 8 days ago

Looks like Poland should be renamed Coaland.

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: Explore Scientific Telescopes: FirstLight 10" Dobsonian $500 (normally $2k) - 9 days ago

I have a 10" Dob on loan from a friend and they're great but just be aware of the bulk. Both for storage (not so bad really) and moving it outside (a bitta huffn & puffn).

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: Post your black friday purchases here - 10 days ago

Gaming laptop for kid for college. 1 vidya game.

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: Happy Thanksgiving all. - 11 days ago

Thanks for spending the last quarter century as my online family and friends!

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: hammock frame -- buy a product or cement some poles in the ground? - 12 days ago

Frame. Flexibility of placement is king as I've noticed that shade moves over the course of the day. And year. Also sometimes people move to a new house.

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: Happy Birthday MR Forum Member RacerX - 13 days ago

Happy Belated Buick Birthday RacerX!

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: Rest in peace, Rosalynn Carter - 15 days ago

3 times posted is reasonable

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Rest in peace, Rosalynn Carter - 15 days ago

The former Rosalynn Smith, married for 77 years (!!) has died. I'm speechless.

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: You're not going to believe this, but I still have the first thumb drive I ever bought - 18 days ago

Quoterich in distress Round two, my first attempts at coding were on this baby. But mostly I played snafu. I used to store large Sound Designer II files on DAT through an audio media II nubes card. It was like a modem call. All I see is RST CTL Shift and Space. Well, some of 1 Q A Z too. You are a damn good programmer to be limited to coding with those. I'll just assume snafu was the

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: You're not going to believe this, but I still have the first thumb drive I ever bought - 18 days ago

Our first media to save documents onto was tape. Was it ever great when we got our first 5.25" floppy. I still have that very first disk, from Radio Shack and I asked the guy at the counter if it could be formatted to use in another computer. He was pretty sure it could be. So was I but we only found out when it worked, lol! My first thumb drive was likely an 8-16 MB Sandisk of some

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: Photographer wins photo contest with staged photo, award suspended - 21 days ago

QuoteBlankity Blank QuoteLew Zealand QuoteDeusxMac “Back in February 1982, a Nat Geo cover featured a shot by Gordon Gahan of a camel train in front of the Pyramids of Giza. The original shot was in a landscape orientation, but the magazine’s editors decided to alter the image, squeezing the main subjects into a vertical frame so that it would fit the iconic yellow borders…” I have

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: Photographer wins photo contest with staged photo, award suspended - 21 days ago

QuoteDeusxMac “Back in February 1982, a Nat Geo cover featured a shot by Gordon Gahan of a camel train in front of the Pyramids of Giza. The original shot was in a landscape orientation, but the magazine’s editors decided to alter the image, squeezing the main subjects into a vertical frame so that it would fit the iconic yellow borders…” I have no problem with that/any crop as noth

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: ‘ Platypus stabs woman with its venomous spurs in odd case ‘ - 24 days ago

QuotepRICE cUBE What? They are venomous? How come they are always portrayed as nice and lovable creatures? They got good PR people. Plus furry with a cute tail! However: if you encounter an animal within 1000km of Australia, always assume it's venomous.

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: canned air - 25 days ago

Quotemacphanatic Quotejh I bought this years ago when I was cleaning out computers at my school. I still have it and it works wonders for my needs. Was much cheaper when I purchased it than what it is today plus it is electric and it is powerful for its size. I use a similar one that cost about $60 a few years ago. I figured that plugging it in to use it wasn't a big deal as it's not us

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: Slowly sinking price: MBPro MKGR3LL/A (Late 2021) 14.2" Laptop Computer (Certified Pre-Owned) $1200 - 27 days ago

That's a nice capable machine, even has an upgraded GPU.

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: My Brain Hurts… - 27 days ago

Quotetimg You know, there is probably some professor somewhere who is looking for grant money to study why people follow/listen to/worship people like Musk and Trump. If there isn't, there should be. I'd really like to know. I mean Steve had his RDF, but it was not used for evil. I hear there were some personalities like that about 90 years ago but I dunno how much direct assessment of

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: MacBook Air 15" Laptop - M2 chip with 8 Core CPU and 10 Core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD $1,449.99 ($200 off) - 27 days ago

That's great to hear! I just keep my machines tor wayyy too long and my 8/256 2015 13" MBPro could really use 16GB and of course no option for that. And that's the newest Mac I have.

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: MacBook Air 15" Laptop - M2 chip with 8 Core CPU and 10 Core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD $1,449.99 ($200 off) - 27 days ago

That's the minimum RAM and SSD I'd recommend for entry level and while the SSD feels a bit tight, external expansion is pretty good nowadays.

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: unPro_fessional behavior?!.....new M3 Pro chip vs. M2 Pro chip benchmark results..... - 29 days ago

Single core improvements are better for most apps, only apps that fully saturate all cores will benefit from multicore, mostly video/rendering work.

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: hey pRICE cUBE and other pros - 30 days ago

QuotepRICE cUBE Typically you won't see dust spots unless you are taking pics at F11, F16, and up. Sometimes you might see it with large swaths of a single color. Cool, thanks for that! Yes I typically shoot no higher than F8 so that makes sense. And no I'm not going to go looking for it because I don't need another thing tickling the back of my head when shooting.

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: hey pRICE cUBE and other pros - 30 days ago

Not a Pro but pixel peep all the time and have been using a Canon T1i and T3i and never had a problem with sensor dust. I put off getting an interchangeable lens camera before then partially because of lens dust concern and that was entirely the wrong decision. In my experience, it's been a non-issue.

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: iMacs really are e-waste products - 4 weeks ago

Sounds like there was no need for much CPU power as the iMacs were all dual core while the Mac Pro started with 4-8 core, which is great. The original Mac Pro wasn't "stuck for 7 years". Intro in 2006, upgraded CPU architecture, speed and/or core counts in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012. It was the trashcan 2013 MP that was stuck for 7 years. I get that the iMac was affordable when ther

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: iMacs really are e-waste products - 4 weeks ago

Never iMac for us for exactly this reason. I really hate to see a perfectly good 1440p or even 2880p monitor rendered unusable for whatever reason because the captive computer behind it fails/is no longer supported. I'm still using my Dell Ultrasharp 2001 as my primary monitor at work. It's iMac contemporary is the 15" CRT 600MHz G3 iMac! The Dell US 2408 merely matches up with the 2.4

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals

Re: School me on this "Thunderbolt" thingy - 4 weeks ago

Yes, all of what you said. Especially the mess bit. In the next unit of this course you will describe all the versions of USB 3 and 4 and how they are different but the same. And in the third unit you will try to disentangle the difference between Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4. Dissertation will concern figuring out why Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 are not just one standard, special distinction wi

by Lew Zealand - Tips and Deals