ello Smexies,

I am participating in the 69 Hump day happiness this week too! … which means one of my higher priced items would be slashed to 69 lindens only ONLY TILL MIDNIGHT TODAY!! The item for this week is a cute exposed top in the punk check pattern! check the pic =>

The vendor is right on the store’s entrance!

Check the HYPER CULTURE mainstore now!!

much <3

Crissy!

If there’s one thing that I hope to achieve with my work, it’s to demonstrate how disappointingly misleading a title can truly be…

After reading about Movember I noticed two fine examples among my fellow commuters and present them here for your enjoyment. Sorry about the lack of bearded women, I do try but I can only work with what I’m given:

Thanks.

Tom

Malak El Ezzawy, one of our favorite local evening wear designers, tributes the “Little Black Dress” this fall with her limited edition collection.  What I love, is that it is a perfect addition to my LBD post (posted a couple of weeks ealier, click here).  As mentioned before, the LBD transcends time and trends and is the perfect “throw it on and still look chic” dress.  A staple in every woman’s wardrobe, just like a man’s white chemise.  Below is a sample preview of her limited edition collection, more on this Facebook link, and in store at the Melodies Atelier at 24 Tharwa St., Mohandeseen, ground floor.

Malak’s LBD collection is full of lace, as we call it in Egypt, dentelle.  The dress below worn by Menna Shalaby is a dentelle top with a chiffon and tulle skirt and a sexy low back.

Menna Shalaby wearing Malak's LBD

This LBD is the perfectly structured tube dress, which I believe, will be flattering to many.  The dress is very futuristic (which I don’t usually like, but this is cool).  I also love how the designer utilized both polka dot and stripped prints on one canvas.

Polka Dot & Stripped Structured LBD

This matte paillette, aka sequined, one shoulder LBD is IT! The fall season is all about embellishment & sequins, in addition to asymmetric dresses.  I guess this LBD is an ALL-IN-ONE must have!

Matte Paillette One Shoulder LBD

I decided to end this post on the perfectly simple, yet sexy, LBD.  The uniqueness of this dress comes not only from its simplicity but its texture.  Velvet is a material that faded away for a while, but is back it style and feels very rich.

Perfect Velvet LBD

Last night I went to Micheal McIntyre’s Wembley gig. It was hilarious. I laughed from start to finish and thought that my evening of comedy ended after his encore. Little did I know. I got on the tube, and started to take off my coat. I got just past my neck and realised the zip was stuck. So I start to tug, and tug, and tug. It was properly stuck. The friends I was with, being the supportive, helpful bunch they were started laughing, drawing the attention of fellow travellers to my plight.

Mild panic, slight claustrophobia, a sharp increase in body temperature and unavoidable humiliation set in. Obviously this did not help. Nor did the fact that I started to laugh…and having had quite an emotional week, the laughing turned to crying. I was on the brink of what my closest friends know as “the laughing/crying thing” (to be avoided at all costs). Seeing my acute stress – Rach, one of my oldest and dearest friends, just sat back an laughed, and nudged her mum out of her seat to help me. So now I am stuck in my coat, overheating, laughing, crying and now I have my friends mum, and my friend Gemma trying to free me from the zip. How embarrassing! All the while I can see more and more people trying not to look – but desperate to watch this most ridiculous of events from their front row seats.

You would think it would end there. Oh no. Rachel’s Mum had to give up, so Gemma took over. Her tactic was to be slow and gentle, speaking to me calmly (a red, mascara streaked giggling mess) and ever so gently tugging at the fabric wedged in the zipper – well that was after she tried the tugging with all her might tactic and punched me in the face. I promise you I am not making this up.

Fortunately just as we entered Zone 2 I was liberated. I believe there was even a cheer and a round of applause. I think everyone on the carriage certainly felt like they got their money’s worth of live comedy for one evening.

And I am off to buy a new coat. With buttons.

I finally got time to go shopping again!  I guess it’s technically almost winter, but the weather outside says otherwise, which is okay by me!  I found some really cute stuff, below are my faves:

The holidays are coming up, which means a lot of parties and functions.  Here are a few party dress options:

Love the colors in this Max & Cleo tube dress from Sonny B. $150

Metallics are also a fun option from black for the holidays.  This Ya tube dress from Sole Searching is so cute! $49

Another option is this Max & Cleo Silver dress from Sonny B. $150

If you’re looking for a dress thats a little less flashy, but still fun, this Max & Cleo Fringe dress is perfect! Also from Sonny B., $157.50

I’m also loving this Max & Cleo classy purple houndstooth print dress from Sonny B. $110 This one can be dressed up or down!

Another fab look for the holidays is a great pantsuit, with a fun shirt.  Check out this outfit.  Grab the BCBGeneration Tuxedo jacket from Lula Balou $128….

Layer it over this BB Dakota sequin tank from Sonny B. $66

And finally finish it off with these BB Dakota skinny black pants also from Sonny B. $84

Right now Sole Searching has some fabulous necklaces that can dress up any outfit.  Looking for something edgy, yet refined? you need this gold & onyx necklace. $169

For a classier look try this impressive freshwater pearl necklace, $120, which has matching pearl hoop earrings 

or either of these Lenora Dame Pearl Necklaces $115, $120

And every lady needs a good cocktail ring.  Choose from any of these plus more at Sole Searching, $29-$39

During this time of year, I am always on the lookout for cute long-sleeved dress.  The buttons on the sleeves really do it for this Vfish dress from Sole Searching, $115

Another option to winter-ize your skimpier dresses are to layer long-sleeved shirts underneath.  The sleeves on this Mystree black shirt make it more dramatic.  From Lula Balou, $48

Turtlenecks can feel very restricting, but the cut-out lace shoulders of this XCVI shirt makes it a little more refreshing and super-cute to wear under a tube dress.  From Sole Searching, $99

Both of these shirts also play well with the trend this fall to emphasize shoulders.  Another trend that is big right now is draping.  Whether its used in more of a sporty style, like this Gado Gado skirt from Sole Searching, $69

or whether its incorporated into an every-day piece, like this Aryn K. navy blouse from Sonny B., $89, this look is always flattering.

Textures are also very happening during this time of year.  How fun is this Ya vest from Sole Searching? $49

Differnt textures and patterns are also good for outerwear, since this is the part of your outfit that people see the most when it gets chilly.  This 3 Sisters paisley coat from Lula Balou is guaranteed to be a head-turner, $248

This D.E.P.T tweed jacket reminds me of Chanel, and I love everything Chanel! Also from Lula Balou, $140

This Fumblin’ Foe military style brocade jacket is also a nice choice, from Lula Balou, $130

Another way to dress up your outerwear, is with fabulous shoes!! Boots & booties are a must!  These Seychelles black booties from Sole Searching kick booty! $115

Buckles are hot right now, especially on these Not Rated grey boots from Lula Balou, $75

These Matiko suede booties are cuties! From Lula Balou, $140

Looking for something taller and funky?  These two Irregular Choice boots are for you.  First pair from Lula Balou, $248, second from Sole Searching, $269

As far as bags go this season, faux-skin is in.  Love the utility of this Shiraleah handbag from Sonny B. $89

This Melie Bianco bag is super soft! From Sole Searching, $89

The bucket style handbag is also back.  This Melie Bianco bag has the option of using a longer strap, and I love the woven texture.  Also from Sole Searching $110.

What are some other pieces that I need this season you ask?  Well, for one, a hot mini skirt!  This  BCBGeneration body con skirt from Lula Balou is very slimming, and versitile.  Wear it with a cute top for going out, or a t-shirt to dress it down, $88

Another piece that I wear almost every day is a cardigan.  Even though I don’t ride horses, I tend to love everything equestrian, like this Charlotte cardigan from Lula Balou, with it’s horse and bridle print.  $118

And don’t forget to add a little bit of color to your winter wardrobe.  Its easy to wear all black, but its more fun to wear a color!  Try this Trinity multi-colored tank for literally a splash of color.  From Sonny B., $62.50

Well hopefully you will all leave a little bit inspired   Have a Happy Thanksgiving, and safe travels!

Well, this was the best party I’ve ever been to that 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999%   of you missed out on.

This is Flappdude’s subscribers party also made because Flipper Productions (made by flappdude) has been coming out with “cooler” videos!

Here you go!

Pretty cool effects, huh?

Comment!

~~~Cookiemon34~~~

[Flappdude owns all rights to this video]

Yesterday was weird. Good! (thanks everyone involved) but weird.

I didn’t post anything in advance because… well because I didn’t really believe it was going to happen, but the Metro ran a feature on my tube drawings!? It was good stuff, some quality puns (theirs not mine), a little bit about my work and six of my illustrations!

“Well done me!” I thought, “I’m gonna do laps after that.” grab a few copis, go home, check emails…No. Oh no no.

Instead… go home, be invited to be on ITN 6 o’clock, panic, agree, do phone interview with the lovely Mhairi from the Waltham Forest Guardian (see that here), spend a few hours feeling incredibly self conscious with Nick Thatcher and his team, try to draw while having a panic attack on the tube with people staring at me and then off to work to watch it in gut wrenching embarassment! Brilliant.

It looked great in the end and, other than having my face in it, I was very pleased and flattered. I think it’s on the internet somewhere but I hope it goes away soon.

Anyway, I also did some drawing, which is the point of all this in the first place and what you waded through this turgid, self congratulatory ramble for, so here it is:

(Another one. What kind of idiot wears sunglasses on the tube?

Him. That’s who.)

And here, off the telly, is my drawing of Nick Thatcher from ITN. (The most pressure I’ve ever experienced while drawing. )

Thanks

Tom

I was actually pretty sad to learn yesterday that London Lite is no more. The free newspaper launched in 2006 to compete with thelondonpaper has now published its final issue. That year signalled a revolution in freesheets as Metro was joined by two publications aimed at catching the rush hour commuters and providing them with latest news and sport. In August 2009 came the announcement that thelondonpaper was to close down. I wasn’t too disappointed because I preferred the Lite anyway. But now I have to stick with The Evening Standard which doesn’t have as many pictures and, let’s face it, that was the reason why everyone read the Lite. I feel sorry for the journos and for these lot who now have to go back to working at Subway.

A rivalry more fierce than Arsenal and Spurs

But the London Undeground will move on and remain one of the most fascinating places in the world. I mean where else will you see this:

Comics were criticised for not being realistic enough

Or this:

I don't get it, do they have jobs?

Or indeed this:

Random happy stranger...

So life will go on I guess. But this will make it MUCH harder to pretend I am reading something so I don’t have to give up my seat to a granny.

Tonight on my way home, I encountered my tube nemesis. I regularly encounter this rude gentleman on my way home – he gets on at Holborn and gets off at Liverpool Street, which is on my way home. He is aged around 50 years old I estimate, and I’ve never met someone as self-obsessed and openly maligned.

He will always persist in shoving people out of the way on the tube for his own personal gain and inconveniencing everyone at every possible account, wherever he can, however he can, to whoever he can – a reflection, he tells me angrily when I confront him (no one else will stand up for themselves), on his own life. He denotes proudly that selfishness is the only virtue that will get anyone anywhere, that it is the only way to live. How wrong he is. And how poorly this reflects on humanity.

If all humans thought as he did, they would speed up our species’ self destruct button, taking the rest of the ecosystem and the planet with it. If humans will not look out for each other, who will? Not a sky God keeping things ticking over from above – no. Humans have evolved to live differently from other animals, who collectively DO live selfishly in this manner in the animal kingdom in order to survive. Although it is often painted that way, human society does not have to reflect the animal kingdom in that sense. There is no one looking after us, no master plan in nature – merely what we have around us.

As one of the only fully self-aware species in a world faced with SO many global problems, it is alarming that people can be so extravagantly destructive of themselves and everyone around them. The way this man has lived his life – in a completely selfish manner as he so loudly proclaims – is a horrific example of this.

I’m no do-gooder. And certainly no preacher. I find no gratification in those things. But to encounter someone actively living such a destructive life like that just astounds me. He will consume and destroy, and no doubt his children too, until he dies, and leave behind a large footprint for those he’s selfishly passed his genes onto to suffer the consequences. Or maybe they will grow to assume his life stance, and also consume, have more children who’ll consume, and have more children…

So, he is my Tube Nemesis. Not in the sense that most people describe (i.e. “I always see X person and we always dash for the last seat!”) but in the sense that I cannot stand his ideals and aggressively destructive, intrusive, loudly offensive way of life. He is just one person. But how many more are just like him? I don’t  know.

I end this blog with a cynical video about the consequences of having children and being selfish. Pretty closely related to my encounter today, presented in a light hearted manner – but something I feel strongly about. And now, I return to my Management coursework for my adult learning class, feeling a little better after blogging this.

This universe was not made for you.
You are unallocated in list of
Participators and only consume… and we’ve entirely forgotten about you.
You do nothing.
You deserve an even smaller potion of happiness than the
Everything you neglect,
A unit so close to zero, it can only be limited to
The lowest number you can squeeze out of
your tube.

Most of the doors are shut at your approach, and we’re
Glad to see your nose close, but far
From the other side of plexi.

If they destroy you, and when they will –
Nothing will happen; you’ve allowed the science
And majesty of prediction to take the place of
Sweet, unreasoned faith.

Die, fruitless laborer. Crumble into your dry skin and
Rot.
Snap your femur with the flat plate of head-bone
Before you go,
And limp… limp into the dark underworld you hardly deserve,
But where else can they put you?

Rodrigo Koxa é da nova geração do Big Surf Mundial, mas vem se destacando em vários mares gigante e conquistando seu espaço.

Vc encararia essa besta?

Na már megint nem írtam egy ideje =(

Viszont megint zenét fogok ajánlani.

A Brokencyde az Egyesült államokban,Albaquerke-ben [Albakörki] lett alapítva.

A The Artery Foundation nevű cég figyelt fel rájuk,akik már több eggyüttest is segítettek az áttörésben.Például az Alesana,The Devil Wears Prada vagy a Carnifex.

A banda négy tagból áll:

Se7en : Dalszövegek
Mikl : Hype,Vokál
Phat J : Szintetizátor,Backup Vokál
Antz : Hype

Zeneileg a Screamo, Crunkcore,Electronic illetve HipHop stílusokba sorolják.

A legelső albumjuk,a 2006-os Blue Steel nagy sikert aratott Amerikában, amit két számuk,a Freaxxx és a Bree Bree követett.

Elérhetőségeik:
YouTubeMySpace

És most itt a legfrissebb számuk, a Booty Call!

Források:

LastFM.com
YouTube

Fordítás by Adam Toxic

I know, because people tell me, that I’m not the most patient person. But no matter how grumpy or irritable I can be normally it’s worse on the tube.

Maybe it’s because I’m normally in a rush when I’m on the tube, or because I’m on my way to work, or have just come from work… or maybe it’s because I’m just grumpier underground, but no matter what people suddenly seem to become incredibly irritating and thoughtless…except you of course. Obviously not you.

So here are some people doing things that irritated me for no reason! I haven’t captioned them all individually so see if you can spot the irritation in each one (bear in mind some are ludicrously petty). Enjoy!

If you figured them all out then congratulations, you’re as bad as I am.

Tom

The best visualizations are information dense while being deceptively simple. This example takes the US interstate system and distills it into its key components.

From the post:

Drawing my cues from the original and best metro diagram, H.C. Beck’s wonderful London Underground diagram, I have rendered the Interstate system in a much simpler form. I have made the “major” highways (those divisible by 5) the framework of the map, with the “minor” highways reduced in importance and rendered as thinner grey lines. Even with these highways, a difference in the greys indicates whether they are even-numbered (west-east) or odd-numbered (north-south). Dots on the highways indicate interchanges: large dots where major highways meet other major highways, smaller dots where major meets minor and tiny dots where minor highways begin or end. A full key at the bottom indicates clearly where each highway begins and ends.

Eisenhower Interstate System

I haven’t scanned the most recent tube drawings… sorry. For now though I thought I might as well try and interest you in some previous projects of mine:

“Staying with Strangers”

Two weeks travelling the country living in the homes of complete strangers in an attempt to put myself into unfamiliar social situations

with no oportunity of retreating to my own comfortable surroundings.

“Theatre”

A look at the differences between the mechanics and the outward presentation of a theatrical production.

“Unfamiliar”

My first reportage project documenting my attempts to ingratiate myself with the locals of an unfriendly local pub.

There, conclusive proof I have seen at least three places other than my house, my work and the inside of a tube train.

To see more of each project have a look on my website: www.tombuddle.com

More tube drawings later…

Tom

]]> http://nkreipke.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/youtube-manager-fur-osx-unser-neues-projekt/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:20:20 +0000 nkreipke http://nkreipke.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/youtube-manager-fur-osx-unser-neues-projekt/

Obi und ich wollen etwas besonderes in Angriff nehmen: Wir entwickeln unsere erste Anwendung speziell für den Mac.

XCode ist wahrlich keine einfache Programmiersprache, aber wir werden uns einarbeiten (müssen) und bald entsteht ein neues Projekt: Der YouTube-Manager.

Ich hatte schon vor langer Zeit eine Idee. Wie wäre es, wenn man mit einer Anwendung YouTube organisieren und verwalten kann und seine wichtigsten Videos immer mit dabei hat, auch wenn man mal nicht online ist? Dies und viel mehr soll das Programm können. Es soll Videos in einer ganz neuen Art präsentieren, anzeigen und verwalten können. Selbstverständlich mit Login und allem was dazugehört.

Das Programm wird nicht gerade eine leichte Anwendung die man so eben in 2 Stunden programmiert. Unser erstes Ziel wird es sein, alle Funktionen des regulären YouTubes zu implementieren. Doch wir gehen einen Schritt weiter. Wir werden die Geschwindigkeit erhöhen und die kleinen Mankos ausarbeiten, die die Onlineversion von YouTube besitzt. Außerdem werden wir umfangreiche Organisations- und Archivierungsfunktionen implementieren, die so zuvor noch nicht bekannt waren. Features, die wir planen, sind (unter anderem):

• Revolutionäre, geschwindigkeitsbringende Benutzeroberfläche mit Drag&Drop Features und exzellentem Design
• Archivierungsfunktion, um alle seine Favoriten, Abbonements, einzelne Videos oder sogar alle angeschauten Videos immer dabei zu haben
• Bessere Tagging- und Suchfunktion
• Mehrere Favoritenlisten und verbesserte Playlistfunktionen
• Umfangreiche Verwaltung von Abonnements
• Neuartige Kommentarfunktion mit History und vielem mehr
• Verbesserte Administration des eigenen Kanals
• und vieles mehr…

Das alles hört sich ziemlich theoretisch an, und das ist es auch. Es wird allerdings das nächste Projekt werden. Wir werden zusammen daran arbeiten. Das Programm wird mit XCode programmiert und ist nur auf OSX lauffähig. Eine Windows- und Linuxversion wird es nicht geben! Ich habe mich dazu entschieden, regelmäßig den genauen Projektverlauf auf meinem Blog zu veröffentlichen. Sobald das Programm lauffähig ist, wird es höchstwahrscheinlich Weekly Builds geben.

Und jetzt das Wichtige: Das Programm wird komplett Freeware und OpenSource (Lizenz ist noch nicht entschieden)!

Und zum Schluss noch eine wichtige Aufforderung an meine Leser. Wie ihr sicherlich gemerkt habt, sprach ich vom “Programm”, denn das Projekt hat bislang noch keinen Namen. Es wäre nett, wenn ihr ein paar Namensvorschläge als Kommentar hinterlasst. Vielen Dank und schönen Sonntag noch!

Here it is…THE WEEKEND.  Tonight is Hot Blonde/PartyMom night so if you see a trio of tall, snarky, whiskey-swilling kitty-cats, that’s just us + 1 for good measure.  We’re def going to stop by the Portland Bridge Festival mixer at Radio Room.  This is their little monthly.  For more info, click http://pdxbridgefestival.com/

There’s also shenanigans at Branx (Freaky Disco!), Groove Suite (R9), Buffalo Gap (live music) and Report (crayons and DJs!).  Izm is at East, Doctor Adam will be at Tube and for once, I have no clue what’s going on at The Crown Room.  Carl, your favorite singing bartender will be there.  Tip him very well if you stop by…….

Do you have plans for Saturday night yet?  If not, I’d strongly recommend this at Dante’s:

The Greatest Rock Experience Of All Time REDUX; a heavy-hitting bacchanal of bonafide rock and roll!

Heavy Liquid is a phenomenon for the good people of Earth.  It is an undeniable force of hybrid genetics specifically designed for maximum face-melting booty-shaking rocking sweat down.  From the core of epic Seattle band El Steiner, Heavy Liquid delivers the subversive early works of Iggy and the Stooges, the birthplace of the savage sub-culture.  As the Philharmonic nails the fuck out of Beethoven or Bach so does Heavy Liquid nail the Stooges.  Celebrate your own personal existence and experience the pure glory of rock.

Queens Of Oblivion
In the year of the Scavenger, the Season of the Bitch…..The Queens of Oblivion channel the alien and alienated, the decadence and excess of glam and disco era Bowie.  Press your space face close to ours, love, and be transported into the age of androgyny with tracks off Ziggy Stardust, Hunky Dory and Station to Station . This set is faithfully recreated with its soul intact by members of March Fourth Marching Band, Stereovision, Climber, the Nowhere Band, and the Stolen Sweets.

DJ GrungeRuckus shows us that the power of plaid, the chain wallet, and your head still speak a common tongue…known as GRUNGE.  One of the Pacific Northwest’s orneriest DJ’s executes a mass raid on the SubPop label and YOUR music collection.  Mosh the hell out of the fact that Britney Spears became the next big thing….

Manhandel
Surprise secret weapon of pure audio sextation. You won’t believe your ears.

Master Of Ceremonies…ELEVEN!!!
“ELEVEN,” the world’s most “turned-up” legend of rock and roll, returns from rehab for a rare Portland appearance to host the show!!  Having rocked-hard with everyone, everywhere since the birth of the amplifier, ELEVEN will once again take the stage and blast friends and fans alike with stories, music, and his never-aging hairdo.  He truly is “ONE LOUDER.”

• Performance art by aerialist Ariel Brantley-Dalglish.

• Special Guest Appearance by StiltPoleDanceWunderDuo:  Jeremiah Guske and Scarlett Torrance.

• Burlesque Entertainment:  Sadie La Guerre!  Why settle for “Bombshell” when you can be the whole damn war?

• Dance performance:  The Good Time Girls!  Sexy at it’s most titillating.

• 8 dollars; 21 and over

I guess if The Best Rock Show of All Time isn’t your bag, I’ll recommend heading over to Branx/Rotture on the other side of the river.  Bass Boom will be popping off with Ben Samples, Cory O.  and Boy Meets Club downstairs while Rainbow Arabia and She’s on Drugs play upstairs at Rotture.  I believe there’s a $6 cover for these shows too……….

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Wanna hear something sad?  I’ll be visiting the family in Salem for the Thanksgiving holiday and have to miss this:

I die a little inside that I won’t see Joker here in p.town but I’ll bounce back.  Go and drink some whiskey for me next Wednesday night?

________________________________________________________________________________________________

For your New Year’s Eve consideration:

Tickets are available right now for $15 at Metro on SE Hawthorne or at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/86458.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

And it’s also Solovox-A-Thon time!  Everyone’s favorite not-a-DJ needs a new computer so he can blow our minds at Drop the Bomb.  He was robbed of the BeatOff Competition title by one point, the proceeds of which would have gone to said new computer so we’re taking up a collection lest he go and do something crazy.   Our deadline is next Tuesday where Nico Bella will also donate her wages from her Woosday cooking gig at The Crown Room and we’re at least 1/6 of the way to our goal!  If you are a true Solovox fan, we’re just asking $5 or $10 and we do take PayPal!  PayPal it to me at kerichang7 [at] gmail [dot] com right now so that Carl can be a good American next Friday and go shopping.  Please?  I’ll be your best friend……..

________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Brasserie Montmartre is newly renovated and reopened.  This was one of my favorite Portland restaurants in the 90’s.  Who wants to go with me before it’s rat/cockroach/pervert infested?  Hurry!  Let’s go!

________________________________________________________________________________________________

The tweed Fender Champ is a 5 Watt Class A amplifier.  What exactly does it mean when an amp is called Class A?  Class A amplifiers operate over the entire input cycle.  This means that the output signal is an exact scaled-up replica of the input with no clipping.  From an exhaustive discussion of various amplifier classifications over on Wikipedia -

Class A amplifying devices operate over the whole of the input cycle such that the output signal is an exact scaled-up replica of the input with no clipping. Class A amplifiers are the usual means of implementing small-signal amplifiers. They are not very efficient; a theoretical maximum of 50% is obtainable with inductive output coupling and only 25% with capacitive coupling.

In a Class A circuit, the amplifying element is biased so the device is always conducting to some extent, and is operated over the most linear portion of its characteristic curve (known as its transfer characteristic or transconductance curve). Because the device is always conducting, even if there is no input at all, power is drawn from the power supply. This is the chief reason for its inefficiency.

If high output powers are needed from a Class A circuit, the power waste (and the accompanying heat) will become significant. For every wattdelivered to the load, the amplifier itself will, at best, dissipate another watt. For large powers this means very large and expensive power supplies and heat sinking. Class A designs have largely been superseded for audio amplifiers, though some audiophiles believe that Class A gives the best sound quality, due to it being operated in as linear a manner as possible which provides a small market for expensive high fidelity Class A amps. Many recording studios use equipment such as preamplifiers that are considered Class A designs. In addition, some aficionados prefer thermionic valve (or “tube”) designs instead of transistors, for several claimed reasons:

• Tubes are more commonly used in class A designs, which have an asymmetrical transfer function. This means that distortion of a sine wave creates both odd- and even-numbered harmonics. The claim is that this sounds more “musical” than the higher level of odd harmonics produced by a symmetrical push–pull amplifier.^[7][8]
• Though good amplifier design can reduce harmonic distortion patterns to almost nothing, distortion is essential to the sound of electric guitar amplifiers, for example, and is held by recording engineers to offer more flattering microphones and to enhance “clinical-sounding” digital technology.
• Valves use many more electrons at once than a transistor, and so statistical effects lead to a “smoother” approximation of the true waveform — see shot noise for more on this. Junction field-effect transistors (JFETs) have similar characteristics to valves, so these are found more often in high quality amplifiers than bipolar transistors. Historically, valve amplifiers often used a Class A power amplifier simply because valves are large and expensive; many Class A designs use only a single device.

Transistors are much cheaper, and so more elaborate designs that give greater efficiency but use more parts are still cost-effective. A classic application for a pair of class A devices is the long-tailed pair, which is exceptionally linear, and forms the basis of many more complex circuits, including many audio amplifiers and almost all op-amps. Class A amplifiers are often used in output stages of op-amps; they are sometimes used as medium-power, low-efficiency, and high-cost audio amplifiers. The power consumption is unrelated to the output power. At idle (no input), the power consumption is essentially the same as at high output volume. The result is low efficiency and high heat dissipation.

1959 Fender Tweed Champ

[Gio] enjoys using vacuum tubes in his projects. He designs the circuits using a CAD program but was finding that there is no substitute for actually building a prototype before heading to a final design. To make this process easier, he built his own tube prototyping station.

At the top of the board he’s got three different sizes of tube sockets with the pins from each wired as common. The nine pins from the sockets break out to a terminal strip where they can be interfaced with a solderless breadboard. For added versatility he’s included terminals to tap into some RCA jacks, as well as a 100 kOhm variable resistor. We’d bet this is not something that you can find ready-made, but it sure does look a whole lot better than a workbench full of components alligator-clipped together.

Sorry for the gap between posts (anyone who cares…) I have spent my week: working, panicking, coughing and, of course, traveling for hours and hours a day on the underground. To make up for my the delay I present a bumper(ish) crop of my tube drawings.

The good thing about putting my drawings up on here is that I’m basically getting a giant group tutorial, which holds off those cravings for tutors and classrooms for a while, and sometimes someone may spot things in your work you might not have. For example: I hadn’t drawn anyone standing up.

Well here they are, with some others who aren’t, standing.

It’s a big step for me as I’m sure you’ll agree and the most amazingly tenuous link yet…

This woman must have been in her late twenties/early thirties and, I promise I’m telling the truth and not embellishing at all, was

picking her nose…and eating it…on the tube.

Disgusting yes, but it made me want to draw her so maybe it says more about me.

Tom