Dave Garrett

Sounds great, Dave! I am on Newegg's mailing list. Do you think that they would be a source of good deals for a unit? Most of their specials are for parts. Yeah, I'm on Newegg's list as well, but I've only ever used them for parts. They do have the occasional deal for a desktop or laptop there, though. I got my machine at Micro Center - they have stores in many cities, or you can order on the website (but some items are only available for in-store pickup). As an example, here is quite a good deal on a model that was the successor to the one I got, and this one's new instead of refurbished. I would also strongly recommend a bigger monitor as opposed to a smaller one - you won't be sorry. Make sure you get a DVI cable as opposed to the standard VGA cable that comes with most monitors, they're not cheap but are better for digital video applications.

I was pretty much in the same boat as you, with a 9-year-old computer that I kept intending to replace but kept putting it off because I didn't want to have to screw around with moving files, reloading software, etc. (I work in IT, so when I come home I don't really want to spend a lot of time fixing my own computer). What finally got me off the fence was running across a deal too good to resist - one of the local big-box specialty computer stores had a dozen or so refurbished HP desktops that normally sell for $450 or so for $339 each. They're not high-end gamer machines, but they have considerably more horsepower than you normally can find at that price point - Windows 7 Home Premium, 4GB RAM, AMD quad-core 2.9GHz Athlon CPU, 750GB hard drive, built-in wireless (this came in real handy when I was setting up the machine over the course of a couple of weekends, since I didn't have to run a network cable to my router in the other room). Of course, like all HP machines it had oodles of crapware preinstalled on it, so I had to spend some time removing all of that from the startup folder and reconfiguring it the way I wanted it, but after doing so I can't believe I waited so long to get a new machine. It's a lot faster than my old machine, for what I do on a regular basis (I'm not a gamer at all, but those who have played games on this particular machine have commented that it acquits itself respectably on that front for a midpriced desktop). Only real drawback is the anemic 250W power supply, which will have to be upgraded if I start using the expansion slots. Also got a nice 23" Samsung monitor on sale for $150, so for a little over $500 with tax, I'm very satisfied. The deals are out there, you just have to be patient and shop around. As an interim measure until you've accumulated the necessary cash, you may want to try backing up all your files and reinstalling your operating system - on a old machine, the registry can get corrupted over time and the quickest way to fix it is usually to wipe the hard drive and reinstall everything.

I'll be all over that, when they figure out a way to retrofit this functionality to an existing set of frames - it sounds like the electronics required are embedded in the frames. I should've probably bitten the bullet and gotten bifocals several years ago. I've resisted doing so up until now, but I've pretty much gotten to the point where I have to take my glasses off to read anything.

Try this: Malwarebytes But be aware that if you have some sort of DNS redirect going on due to malware, it may block your access to antivirus or anti-malware sites.

The one you have is indeed a reissue, in a slightly smaller format than the earlier limited editions. A quick comparison of the various editions can be found here.

Anything by Richard Halliburton. Many a youthful imagination of yore was fired by his Complete Book of Marvels. Taschen published a very nice coffee table book, Burton Holmes' Travelogues, which should definitely be of interest. It appears to be out of print but copies can still be had from third-party sellers at Amazon. I got a copy for cheap when Taschen included it in a clearance sale a couple of years ago, guess that was a good indication that it was going out of print. There is an excerpt from it with some photos still up on their website, and a related book of Holmes' photographs is still available.

eBay is about to start including S&H in its Final Value Fees. As you might expect, sellers are plenty pissed off about this. Others are of the opinion that the bad apples who charged exorbitant S&H rates to pad their sale prices ultimately wound up screwing the honest sellers when eBay cracked down on the practice. eBay Fee Changes Hit Auction Sellers Hard

That's depressing that it was so close to a DVD release only to have the plug pulled in such a fashion. Reminds me of the MC5 documentary MC5: A TRUE TESTIMONIAL, which got as far as some theatrical screenings and promotional DVDs sent out to reviewers before the filmmakers had a falling out with Wayne Kramer and he successfully sued to block release of the film. I still have my Voyager laserdisc of IMAGINE THE SOUND, which seems like the best way to see it short of the odd rep screening.

I always think back to the short-short story I wrote in the eleventh grade about smuggling a shotgun into school and blowing away some of the school assholes. It got me an "A" in '74; I suppose now it would get me five to ten... When I was a sophomore in HS, our history teacher went into a fair amount of detail one day about how easy it would be to take over the large city we lived in with a relatively small force by attacking specific elements of the local infrastructure like ports, power plants, water and gas utilities, and so on. Try that today and DHS would be frog-marching his ass out the front door before the bell signaling the end of the period rang. Presumably he had the opportunity to further refine this plan, as he subsequently joined the military and has since risen through the ranks to become a fairly senior officer.

Cool - I've been using the IP Board app for a while with another forum, and I've added the Big O to my forum list. The app is slick, but they just updated it a week or two ago and the new version seems buggy. I use the New Content button heavily, and ever since the update I'm having to log in manually every time I browse the forum, which I didn't have to do previously.

I spoke too soon earlier in this thread (or maybe it was a related thread) - I have three separate orders from three different sellers in the UK that I've now been waiting on since the beginning of January. Two were pretty substantial DVD orders, but one was a regular-sized trade paperback, which blew my theory of the delays only happening with larger packages (I ordered a single DVD from Amazon.uk since then and it got here within a week and a half).

That's a hell of a deal on an essential series. I had the old box of half-hour episodes, and picked up the R2 box of hour episodes released by Network in the UK a while back. Network has released a bunch of outstanding TV box sets that are highly recommended (if you have a codefree player or live in R2), including a complete collection of all the B&W episodes of The Saint, something that has yet to make it to R1 DVD.

Damn. She will be missed. RIP, Tura.

Mine is up to 30 days. Wow. I ordered the Masters of Cinema dual-format (BD and DVD) version of the reconstructed METROPOLIS from them on January 2. It took less than a week for it to make its way from the UK to Texas. Granted, it was probably a considerably smaller package than some of the ones being discussed here, and I'm still waiting on a much larger order of MoC DVDs I ordered directly from Eureka Entertainment during the recent sale they had.

Just like it's hard to talk when you're teabagging, it's really hard to laugh when you're tossing salad.

I love hefeweizen in Summer too... and Fall, and Winter, and Spring. Widmer is the highly accessible, regular favorite that I keep on hand constantly. I like Franziskaner, but among the imports I've tried (some in side-by-side taste tests)... my personal favorites are Paulaner (loved the smooth taste, as well as the carbonation) and Weihenstephaner (so rich and flavorful... it's always sad when the glass goes empty). I've had all of those at one time or another, but when it comes to hefeweizen I've probably put more of these away over the years than any other:

The house he lived in before that is certainly noteworthy as well.

Anyone with even a passing interest in these kinds of films will probably want to check this downloadable PDF out: The Field Guide to Sponsored Films

This one is the US analogue of the Staplerfahrer Klaus films - it's on the Internet Archive as well, and has been referred to as the "Citizen Kane of safety films": Shake Hands With Danger Once seen, never forgotten. And you only think you've experienced an earworm before if you've never heard the theme song.

Rick Prelinger is an amazing individual to whom everyone with more than a passing interest in the less-traveled byways of culture owes an eternal debt, not only for being one of the first people to take ephemeral films seriously, but also for his subsequent work, of which just one example is founding the Prelinger Library. Chief A/V Geek Skip Elsheimer periodically travels to various cities around the country to screen films from his massive collection. Like the DVDs he offers on his website, the screenings are usually themed - for example, a group of films dealing with alcohol and drug abuse, driving safety, or venereal disease (I believe he's writing a book about VD films, as it's a genre that's near and dear to him). I've had the very good fortune to catch quite a few of his screenings, as he paid an annual visit to a local microcinema for almost ten years. If you ever get a chance to attend one, they are not to be missed - he invariably precedes the main program with an educational filmstrip that involves audience participation and gets everyone in the mood for the films to follow.

So after you've had a turducken, what you do you have for dessert? Pumpecapple

Heartfelt condolences to you and your family.

40% off one item, good through today