einstein

[einstein]

Mine is still going since fall 2006, built as soon as the core 2duos came out. I have taken it apart once to clean it 3 years ago and gave it a clean install on windows 7. I removed the soundcard, replaced the hard drive and have changed tuners a few times going from NTSC to Astc. I stopped using it to watch my main tv almost 2 years ago.  Bought an Xbox on Black Friday 2011, and since then the htpc stays in the basement while the Xbox is a media center extender.  I added another Xbox last year, both connected by wired Ethernet. I have a 24 inch tv connected to the htpc, but don’t ever watch tv on it unless we are hiding from tornadoes. I use it occasionally as another computer for printing coupons, and it still has my iTunes library so I use it for managing my iPhone. It has shown no signs of wearing out, and I have no plans on changing anything on it or replacing it. A bigger hard drive might be nice, but cat imagine any other changes unless I get a bigger tv and build a home theater in the basement. 

[einstein]

Its 3840 wide instead of 4096, but that price cannot be beat.  I would just be afraid that once 4K content becomes available it would be 4096.

[einstein]

You might want to check out The Audiophiliac.  He reviews a lot of very high end equipment, but he also reviews some high-quality budget gear too.  Last week he reviewed a 125 Watt-per-channel Outlaw 7.1 channel amp for $1000, or you can get the amp and DAC for $1400.  If you search his blog you might find some other dedicated amps.

[einstein]

I don’t think it’s possible. I was hoping to do the same thing, keep the Xbox out of sight. I tried plugging in a WMC USB dongle, didn’t work. I tried plugging the IR Blaster into the WMC dongle hoping it would work as an IR repeater, didn’t work either. I googled, it didnt seem like anyone else had made it work either.  I finally bought a well-reviewed IR repeater from Amazon, but haven’t hooked it up yet. I have to find a way to vent the heat out of the cabinet before I can close the Xbox away. 

[einstein]

Cable companies don’t like to give out thier planned expansions. I’ve heard a story about AT&T u-verse revealing plans to expand into a neighborhood, and shortly before they started signing people up Charter went out and tried to get everyone in the neighborhood to renew thier contracts. 

[einstein]

Interesting that the spammer chose this thread to resurrect. I just got done reading an article about The Hobbit being filmed at 48fps. Peter Jackson showed a 10 minute preview at CinemaCon, reactions are mixed. One of the articles says some of the huge movie guys are pushing this format. 

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/peter-jacksons-48fps-presentation-of-the-hobbit-at-cinemacon-gets-a-mixed-response-20120424

I bought 2 large 120hz TVs on black Friday last year. Hate to think that they will be doing a 3:2 pulldown soon. 

[einstein]

I have a new xbox360 and a Linksys extender. I have used both wirelessly. They are usually acceptable when my wireless router is 1 floor directly below them. The menus are pretty slow and laggy, sometimes frustratingly slow. If the router is a floor below and a room away, then anything high-def will drop frames, or usually the video slows down and the audio keeps playing, then the audio stops and waits until the video catches up. Then a notice pops up “network issue”. There isn’t much difference in wireless performance between the two different extenders. I would not recommend trying to use either one wirelessly as part of your regular setup.

[einstein]

The Best Buy ad shows Blu-rays for $4.99.  Shows Pulp Fiction in the picture, so you can still get a decent deal on it.  Best Buy also seems to have the best deals on TVs.  They are the line I will be waiting in this year.  I’m trying to get the 55″ Dynex for $600, the 24″ for $80, and the $200 42″ Sharp to give as a gift.

The website bfads.net has a few guides written up on the best TV deals of various sizes.  They don’t seem to consider picture quality much, so beware of that.  Yahoo and Consumer Reports posted a list of 10 great TV deals, and they consider performance.    

There are also several stores with an 4GB Xbox360 Kinect package for $200.  Amazon had one as a daily deal, sold out in less than 90 seconds.  Walmart has it in store at midnight and a $50  gift card.  If you miss it at Walmart, you can get it at Radio Shack later, but without a gift card.  There are also some stores that have a 250GB Xbox with Fable3 and Halo Reach for $200.  

[einstein]

I love The Mentalist!!  I started watching with the first episode.  I was so afraid it was going to turn into ER or Numbers, where they focused too much on the interpersonal relationships and not enough on being doctors or solving crimes. But they have not disappointed me on this show.  I am surprised that there is a 4th season.  The last season finale seemed like an appropriate series finale.

[einstein]

Thanks for posting.  I was worried I was alone.  My wife is not happy, now I can tell her its not my fault.

[einstein]

I bookmarked an Ask Slashdot discussion on this topic a couple years ago.  

At work we have Steelcase Leap chairs.  They are very nice, but not much cheaper than the Aerons.

[einstein]

I used Windows Media Player for a little while. Not because it was good, but because it was free and already installed. It works well enough, I just hate their library management.

[einstein]

Site was back up today.  I was trying to show my coworkers what it was doing, so the site had to prove me wrong by working.

[einstein]

Their home page is serving up your upgrading message.  Thier other pages are serving up JSP source code.  It would be funny if it wasn’t a potential security risk.

[einstein]

[quote=”Meester.Rip”]

I wish I had your motivation to write code. I was briefly interested in writing for Android prior to getting my phone and then every idea I had was already done.

Then last week I installed everything to write code with lightswitch but there are so many bugs in using it I am going to wait until a RC comes out.

[/quote]

Check Craigslist, in the computer gigs section.  You’ll find plenty of people with “million dollar ideas”  who need a partner to code it for them.  Especially mobile apps or websites.  I’ve read enough stories on TheDailyWTF to know how most of those stories will work out, but sometimes I think it would be fun to do a couple in my spare time. 

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