LennyH

Can't people have a couple of weeks to work up to the group hug?

I love my android (HTC One x) but after a few months with it I'm pretty shocked at what a pain in the ass it's been to get all of the notifications working exactly like I want. The blackberry had settings to put everything on silence, vibrate, ring or ring + vibrate. Simple. I've spent quite a while trying to get my droid to do exactly that and am using multiple third party apps and it's still not quite right. And I went with a 3rd party text app to help with this and sometimes get double notifications, one from the 3rd party app and one from the native (AT&T) one. The droid is superior in almost every other way (compared to BB Torch) but it's amazing that I've had so much trouble doing something that seems so simple. I went with Droid over iPhone because of lack of customization possibilities on the iPhone. I can do most of what I need to do with one click. I'd also never trade this screen for a smaller one. A big factor with this Z10 should be how many of those droid apps get ported over. That's their only hope.

I remember you. We're you into skateboarding?

Incorrect. It turns out that I can decide what's fun for me and that's not impacted in the slightest by whether or not it meets your definition.

Yeah, I just checked and I joined here in June of 2003. I did read this board regularly for a while. Geez, we're just having a bit of fun with this on both boards. Not sure why a few people seem to be taking it so seriously. It's all in good fun. First of all, we're just getting used to the idea of the JC forum getting yanked after all of these years. The news is still fresh and it's not like we're going to go on about it forever. People should try to be patient. Some of the people from JC that have just started posting here recently will become assimilated and follow the rules around here like good boys and girls and I'm positive that this board will be better for it.

LENNY!!!! I'm quite happy for you to join me here as the new kids! But we're not allowed to talk about ourselves (or even each other) too much, unless we balance it with sufficient talk about album cover art. I actually don't believe this, but that's what some people on JC are saying about Organissimo, and I've made like 6 straight posts here without being a wise guy and I was about to explode. Whoa...Where the hell am I? I'm sorry, I thought I clicked on The Beer Thread but ended up here.

Check...1-2 Hey, some site has to become the lucky recipient of my 3 posts a week...

Good grief. Here we go again. You might be right about the the Aints going to the SB, but they have to get past the Iggles first. The Eagles did not play as well this week as they have been. The pass offense should be better next week. Should be one helluva football game.

Yeah, it looks like the Avia has better reviews. Better navigation (Digital Video Essentials definitely does not excel in that area) and more in depth color reference. It's been updated more recently than DVE. Avia is more expensive but I'd say go for it and spend the extra money. You drop a big wad of cash on an HD TV and you don't have a prayer of adjusting it correctly without some help. These DVDs do a lot of things and you won't find all the features useful, but they're more than worth it even if you just used them to get the colors in tune.

Ain't that the truth. I certainly wouldn't waste time waiting for the supposed next great thing. I spent $2,200 for my 42" Sony LCD RP 3 years ago. I could get better quality today for less money (although I must say, I think mine holds up surprisingly well after 3 years) but we've gotten immeasurable enjoyment out of this TV. My wife thought I was nuts when I bought it, but within days she understood. We're still in awe of it after all this time.

porcy62, HD is delivered here by cable, satelite and through the air (picked up by an HD antenna). There's actually a lot of HD programming now, thankfully. The difference in night and day. It's fantastic. It is HD all the way like you describe for a lot of the new programming (TV shows, sporting events, etc). Although there are expections: - Some things are broadcast over a HD channel but it's 4:3 and not true HD. This is better quality than a regular digital channel but it's not HD. - During a sporting event, not all of the cameras used are necessarily HD. During the big events, the majority of the shots are in HD but it's obvious during some shots that an HD camera is not being used. Many sporting events are still in 4:3, unfortunately. -Most movies were transferred from film, of course, as are documentaries but the transfer is usually very good. Some documentaries that were originally done on film still look incredible. HD has come a long way over the 3 years since I fist got it.

I have Digital Video Essentials and it worked very well for me. I believe they will both do the job. I've heard that Avia might have a more user friendly interface.

Thanks, porcy62. That all makes sense to me.

Couldn't have said it better myself, felser. I agree with you on every single point. I've seen Sonny 4 times since 2000 and this is the longest he played. His energy was amazing. Song selection, as you said, lacked diversity. He came out and killed on G-Man but it was uneven the rest of the night, mostly due to his choice of tunes. I think the best I've seen him was at the Keswick Theater in 2000, although that band wasn't as solid as this one. Still great to see the man in action! Clifton Anderson was very good. I hoped to give you a ring before the show started but we just got there in time to get seated. We ate at Monk's around the corner, which was a total zoo. An interesting discovery brought on by this thread: felser and I work in the same building

Advice for a few above: Be sure to pick up the Digital Video Essentials or AVIA DVD's to help you set up your TV correctly. It's worth the price just to get the color right. You will never set your TV up properly by eye. Brightness is another issue. I had to do that by eye (the DVDs didn't help much) but even with LCD you can find an acceptable balance of black level and black detail. LCD gets knocked for this and it's true that this is still one of the cons of LCDs, but these things (like virtually all TVs) are WAY too bright out of the box. You can easily change this and bring your blacks more into line. I have to say that the motion blur is not that big of a deal for me. I certainly can see it but it's doesn't effect the actual action of the game for me (the motion of players, footballs, etc). Kevin said to watch the sidelines of a football game to see it but I haven't noticed that it's particularly bad there. I'll pay more attention to that this week. I've noticed it most during hockey and I see it most when the camera moves very quickly or pans in or out rapidly (Although I don't know how much of this is caused by the feed). This honestly doesn't effect my enjoyment of the game.

Realism and quality are subjective, but I can't agree that the CRTs provide more definition. Almost exactly 3 years ago, I was in the market and I was pretty serious about the Mitsubishi 42"CRT until I found that it wouldn't fit where it needed to. Around the same time, my store (a real nice store with very knowledgeable sales people) just got in the 3rd generation Sony LCD Rear Projection and I was intrigued. My salesman told me it would not match the level of detail of the CRTs. There were in separate rooms so it was hard to tell. The next week, they happened to move the Sony into the room with all the CRTs. It was right next to the Sony 36" HD CRT, which is a very highly rated TV. I can tell you for a fact that LCD showed significant detail (from a HD feed) that was non-existent on all of the other CRTs in the room. My sales guy was in shock when he saw this.

The hard part, I think, is that the "finest picture" is a very elusive thing. You'd really need to bring all of the TVs home and tune them to see what they can do. My Sony looks light years better than it did out of the box and it took hours to get it that way. I bought a 20" LCD a year or so ago and sat it next to my Sony to tune it. It was horrible out of the box. The colors were so far off...pink was showing up as orange, etc. It's a mess because they set these TVs are set up for the sole purpose of getting your attention. And most people bring them home and don't spend the time to get them right.

Philly

I'll be there. The Kimmel Center is GREAT. I've seen Sonny there twice before. Parking and dining is a tougher question to answer. There are so many choices. You might want to narrow it down by mentioning your basic food preferences, price range, etc and whether you'd really prefer to walk to the show after eating. I don't know a ton of places in the city but someone else probably will. I saw McCoy Tyner with Regina Carter a couple of weeks ago at The Kimmel. I had a great Fillet Mignon at Fri/Sat/Sun. This week I might go to Monk's Cafe to suck up some Belgian Ale.

If someone said definitively which is the best I'd say they are full of crap. There are pros and cons to each technology and each person should weigh them and decide which works best for them. I chose LCD rear projection a few years back and will most likely go direct view LCD next time, but it's too early to tell. LCD was my preference but it might not be yours (The weakness of LCDs is the black level and black detail). Do you need or prefer flat panel? That might be the first question to answer.

I saw them in Philly a couple weeks ago. I hate to say it, but I thought it was a bore. Regina Carter, the opening act, was much more fun and interesting, IMO.

I bought a Capresso and it was the last drip coffee maker I'll ever buy. I've never had a cup of coffee from a home drip machine that I was satisfied with. I recommend a French Press.

They already paid him. As you know, he's in the 2nd year of a 7 year contract. When his agent spouts off about how TO's salary this year isn't in the top 10 receivers in the league, he conveniently forgets about the $7.5 mil bonus that TO would get at the end of this year. The Eagles won't pay. I believe that at the end of this year, they'll part ways. And TO can kiss the $7.5 mil bonus goodbye.

That MSNBC article misses the point for me. It's not just about money for all of us. I plan to buy a hybrid next. I may or may not end up saving money in the end. It really doesn't matter to me because: 1. I'll be doing something NOW to help reduce greenhouse gases 2. I'll be doing something NOW to try to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. 3. Most importantly - High demand for hybrids will drive advances in this technology faster than anything else. The car companies don't develop their business plans based on what's best for the environment and they don't give a rat's ass about our dependence on foreign oil. They build cars that will sell. And the success of the Prius and some of the other hybrids have their attention, thankfully. And yeah, we should all check our tire pressure and do other things that help us get better mileage. I'm pretty sure I can also do those things if I'm driving a hybrid. And I'll buy a better hybrid in 5 years...

Thing is, you will use more electricity with a car like that...we will need to burn more coal, oil, or will have to have more Nuclear plants....Hybrids that can recharge themselves seem like a better idea... ← Yeah, but how much electricity? As an example, the article above about the modified Prius talks about a quarter's worth a day...not too much coal burned there, I would assume. ← Thanks, Moose. It's reasonable to ask whether using electricity for a plug in hybrid is just replacing one type of fossil fuel consumption for another, but the facts speak for themselves. Here a nice piece by Joe Romm, who ran the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the US Department of Energy during part of the Clinton Administration and wrote "The Hype about Hydrogen" (Island Press, 2004). News From CalCars on Plug-in Hybrids I linked to that from one of the many sites I've learned a lot from the last few days.: CalCars.org