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Books vs TV

It's been far more expensive to buy me books than a stupid plasma TV.

The Search for a Thin Bezel Flat Panel

I'm interested in buying a new TV.  At this point I'm just looking/researching, which is half the fun. :) 

What am I looking for:

• At least 50", 55" would be nice
• 1080p
• VGA input
• Good picture quality
• No need for any features such as tuner, speakers, ethernet, photo cards etc

Basically just a display panel.

Its not too big a deal finding some TVs that match those specs.  But, my next deciding factor is appearance.  I would really like a panel with a very narrow frame/border, e.g. very minimalist, nothing but screen.

This is hard to find it seems.  It seems to be called "thin bezel".  Here's what I've found so far:

Samsung 460UTn-UD

The 460UTn-UD series of panels is made by Samsung, and is one of their Professional Displays, it looks like their marketed to businesses, and one of their key features is their thin bezel that enables them to be mounted next to each other and have large images composited across many panels without much interruption at the borders.

• Yes, they have a ultra thin bezel
• Unfortunately they only come in this one size, 46"
• They only support 720p, not 1080p

LG 55SL80

The LG 55SL80 looks very promising.  It was announced this summer and according to what I've read should be available now, but it looks like its not yet widely available at retailers.  The 55SL80 is one of a series of brand new LCDs from LG that have a super narrow bezel, and look like they support all the latest features such as 240Hz, 1080p, etc.

• Yes, ultra slim bezel
• Three sizes available: 42", 47" and 55"
• 1080p, 240Hz
• Single layer design - seems to refer to a single surface on the front

And thats it... So far I can't seem to find much else.

Got any tips?

Full HD zum kleinen Preis

Leipzig - Plasma, LCD und Full HD. Kaum ein Verbraucher weiß viel mit diesen Bezeichnungen anzufangen, so dass der Fernseher-Kauf mehr und mehr zur Wissenschaft wird. Das Internetportal für Auktionen www.auvito.de klärt auf, worauf Kunden beim Kauf achten sollten.

Je flacher die Fernseher werden, umso größer werden sie. Käufern fällt es oftmals nicht leicht, sich für die richtigen Maße zu entscheiden. Viele große Modelle sind günstiger zu erwerben als kleinere. Dennoch sollten Kunden stets im Hinterkopf behalten, wieweit sie in ihrem Wohnzimmer vom Fernseher entfernt sitzen. Bei einem 46-Zoll-Fernseher sollte der Abstand zu Couch oder Sessel mindestens 3,5 Meter...

Full HD zum kleinen Preis bei Pressehof komplett lesen

Gmail плазмоид

Вот такая красота будет уведомлять вас о новой почте в gmail аккаунте. Загрузить можно через меню выбора плазмойдов введя в поиске gmail или на страничке где также указанно, что нужно для работы, если у вас необходимое еще не установленно.

The great Mac Mini home theatre experiment

Over the past couple of weeks, the components for my ultimate Mac Mini home theatre have slowly arrived. The main component - the Mac Mini - came first. It's the latest model (released March 2009) with the following specs:
 
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB of RAM
120GB Hard Drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor
 
Got a great deal on eBay. About $600 for a barely used one plus the guy threw in a Western Digital 320GB external hard drive he used for Time Machine back ups. This exact same configuration through the Apple Store would have been $749 plus tax and that's without the external hard drive.
 
Since storage was going to be an issue, I also picked up a brand new Drobo for $335 (retails for $429). I had a spare 1TB hard drive lying around so I popped that in. I'll be adding more drives over the next few months - probably the eco-friendly Western Digital Caviar Green SATA drives. They come in 2TB, 1.5TB, and 1TB models and I'll pick whichever one I can get the best deal on. Great thing about the Drobo is that the drives don't have to all be the same size or model.
 
I first hooked up the Mac Mini to my 42" Panasonic Plasma (TH-C42FD18) via a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. Then connected the audio via a 3.5mm to RCA cable (will do TOSLink when I have a better sound system). Flipped over to the second HDMI input on my TV and BAM! Got the Mac OS desktop. I'll do another post later on video quality, codecs, and the pros/cons of Front Row.

8. Cheap, Unlimited Electricity for the Third World

A very promising way to generate cheap, clean, safe and unlimited electricity is in development. Imagine a 5 MegaWatt power station costing $300,000 and about the size of a small office. This can potentially revolutionize the availability of electricity in the Third World. Thanks to Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc. (http://www.lawrencevilleplasmaphysics.com/index.php?pr=Home_Page)
 
A short video describing the Focus Fusion process:

 
Dr. Eric Lerner's presentation for Google TechTalk in 2007, which led to investment in the technology:

How the sun really works

How this financial disaster is like Catholicism

I grew up Catholic. 

One of the things you learn very early on is this earthly life is a test of your faith for a reward of either heaven and eternal life or hell and eternal damnation. Life here is supposed to be hard, we are supposed to feel pain because these trials are what helps God determine what kind of person who are and what our reward should be. Yes, I know I am grossly over-simplifying this and I have a large contingent of theologian friends with whom I can argue all day long, so if you don't agree, please just take that on face value. It will help the analogy move along much quicker.

So you go to Church every Sunday, you help the poor, you don't commit mortal sins, you do all the things that make you a good Catholic and that in turn will make you a good person. Now, here is where faith wears thin. As you get older, temptations become stronger, specifically, wine, women and song. These things are really, really fun and they make the promise of heaven or hell -- while eternal -- not believable. 

If there is no heaven or hell, if this life is all there is, you sure will have wasted a whole lot of good fun. But, if there is a heaven and hell, and you succumbed to the sins of the flesh, you are in deep do-do.

Moving over to your secular life, as a good citizen, you do good things as well. You live within your means by not buying a house you can't afford, save money in a retirement plan, don't put a 58" plasma TV on a credit card at 28% interest, don't buy a cherry red Hummer which is really, really yummy looking.... oh, you're still there... forgive me reader, for I have sinned....

If you are living within your means (good Catholic) and all your neighbors who went out and got drunk on over-priced homes, televisions, cars and stocks get bailed out by the Federal Government (God) what was the point of you living within your means? What if you living within your means actually means that your house is now worth 70% of what it was, you have to spend down your savings because you lose your job and you have no TV to watch to wile away your days of unemployment? Does a great FICO score get you into heaven or is it a worthless ticket? 

Are the fiscally responsible who have not been living the high-life of comfort and excess going to now be forced to live with even less because of the sins of their neighbors? Doesn't God just punish the sinners? How is this fair?

Well it isn't and it makes one question the value of being a "good citizen." If I knew with absolute certainty that there is no God, no heaven and no hell, I would be having more fun in this earthly life. I would be sinning and I would care less about the other puppies on this planet. After all, this would be the only go-around I would get and to not grab all I can out of the deal would just be silly.

If I knew with absolute certainty that no matter how fiscally irresponsible I was that eventually the Federal Government would bail me out, that they would force my bank to give me a better interest rate and that I could get a new Hummer every year and a big screen TV for every room of my house, I would not care about excessive credit card debt or paying any part of the principle on my home loan. Saving for a rainy day would be just silly.

But, I am not a gambler and the odds of there actually being a God are a little higher than there not being a God. At any rate, the possibility of spending an eternity frying my tail off just doesn't sound all that much fun. Why risk it. And, being Catholic, I can always go to confession after sinning (don't tell God about the loophole.)

I believe that the lack of mental anxiety that comes with living within your means is worth it. Like the Vatican, I don't believe the government cares about me personally other than I behave myself and don't make too many waves. By keeping me in a house, family and self-inflicted poverty, they is accomplishing their goal. 

I will come out of this recession more intact than my drunken neighbors. I just hope the government can figure out a way to reward the responsible citizen while also making the sinners pay. 

But I know our government also believes there is a God and they are leaving the sorting of the sinners to him (or her.) That vote is just way, way too risky and there are no confessionals in Congress.

Ike's column in HuffPost

I wrote something about this earlier on my Twitter page but thought it deserved a little more space here.  My partner, Ike, will be writing a regular column in the Huffington Post regarding consumer credit.  Obviously, it's very timely given what's going on in the world.  Couldn't have gotten a more qualified person to write the column given Ike's background as one of the pioneers in online consumer credit.  Check it out here.

On a totally unrelated note, I've finally caught up to the world by getting a plasma TV.  Got a great deal on eBay for a used Panasonic (take advantage of that Microsoft 30% CashBack!).  Now that BlueRay is the rage, I'll wait another 5 years for the players to go sub-$100.  I'm all about the value!