iPhone Remote App + AirPort Express with AirTunes = Awesome

I just setup the Apple AirPort Express with AirTunes(802.11G version). Combined with the Apple Remote application on the iPhone this is very, very, very cool.

Now, from anywhere in the house, you can control the iTunes library stored on your computer from the iPhone and stream the music to your home stereo system. The Remote application can even control which set of speakers to send the music to- the computer speakers or the AirTunes one.

No more being limited to the music on the iPhone. Ours is 8Gb.
No more having to plug the iPhone into speakers, especially since this one has the recessed headphone jack.
No more having to control the iPhone/iPod by walking up to it since it's hardwired to the speakers.

Now if only the Remote application could control the iTunes library and stream your music to the iPhone.

Anyways, setting up the AirPort Express with Windows wasn't exactly straightfoward. I had to muck with the PC's network settings, then set them back.

Otherwise, this is awesome. My wife was duly impressed but in the next breath said, "What about FM radio reception?" Guess I'm going to go buy an AM/FM antenna tomorrow. At least I can listen to the Giants then.

iPhone OS 2.0

iPhone OS 2.0 was unofficially available yesterday, but not yet officially available via iTunes. So I d/l'ed it and try to install it on G's iPhone. I already installed the required iTunes 7.7 a few days earlier.

July 10, Thursday night-
The iPhone OS 2.0 download was ~250 Mb! Wow.
Plug-in iPhone to computer, hold down Shift key and click the "Update" button to choose the v2.0 bundle. Otherwise, iTunes would just report that the iPhone is up to date.

iTunes backed up the iPhone before it began installing the new OS. This is a good thing.

Installing the OS is fairly painless, but loading the data from the back-up hung halfway through. iTunes would show that the iPhone is being synced, but the iPhone would pop-out of the "syncing" screen to normal mode. "Hmm wonder if something is wrong, or if it's just taking a long time?"

After a few iterations of this stop and starting this cycle (stop/re-install/restore) I decided to let it run through the night thinking it's not hung, but just taking a long time.

July 11 morning-
Nope. It's stuck where it was at when I went to bed.

Ok, let's do it again. Now (!), v2.0 shows up as official update via iTunes. It downloads the 250Mb bundle - again. I have cheap AT&T DSL so this takes a while. =/ But wait, this time it asks me to accept the license agreement. I take this as a good sign, something is going right now.

Alrighty, v2.0 OS is installed and we're good to go! The iPhone is now basically completely wiped aside from the new OS install. Next, iTunes will automatically re-activate the phone. But... Apple's iTunes iPhone activation servers are down because of the huge crush of people activating the new 3G ones in-store not only all across the country, but around the world.

By the now, G's got to leave the house to take the kids to VBS, and I should be getting to work. I give her my phone to use while I finish this up. (haha, yeah right) Being an engineer, I do the "let me try just one more thing..." which I hope will take just 15 minutes, but this is like hitting the snooze button again... "just 15 minutes" becomes a number of hours.

ITunes finally gets through to the servers and begins to restore the phone. After many trials of restoring, I know this takes forever. Is it my computer? Is it the USB cable? And why does it need to ping the iTunes servers before the restore starts?! I think it is to check whether the OS version is up to date.

I bust out my ThinkPad so I can get some real work done as I'm unintentionally unofficially working a 1/2 day from home now. Fortunately, work isn't super busy right now.

After what seems like a couple hours, the restore is finally done. But... all the music, pictures, videos etc., the bulk of the data, was not part of the restore. Now it has to sync all that stuff from the computer back to the iPhone. Aw man... so it's got to push nearly 7 Gb of stuff over. Rrrrrgh! But before if does that it backs-up the iPhone again. Better safe that sorry I suppose, but can't we do this later?

Sync is done, but the Apps I downloaded last night weren't synced. There are about 12 apps which are <= 1Mb each, but this takes about 1/2 hr to sync.

Finally it's all done. What should have taken about an hour or so took many hours. Oh well.

"Your Baby Never Looked Good In Blue"

Update: Well, just one week later, and HD-DVD has surrendered.


That is unless that baby is Blu-Ray high def disc.

Big sigh of relief here. Blu-Ray is going to win the high def disc war over HD-DVD. Netflix is not going to offer HD-DVD anymore at the end of the year. And BestBuy is going to push Blu-Ray exclusively now, though there may be still some HD-DVD stuff in the back somewhere. All this after Warners pledged to go Blu-Ray only, and halt HD-DVD releases in May 2008- all major movie studios save for Universal and Paramount are Blu-Ray only.

"What? There was a high def disc war?" Yeah. Most people don't even know there was a war on.

Anyways, I got a PlayStation 3 (60Gb) sometime last year b/c I traded in my original PS2 and a bunch of accessories at GameStop. And paid for the PS3 using a new Sony credit card which gave $150 cash back after the 1st purchase. So $599 Ps3 - $100 PS2 trade-ins - $150 Sony credit card offer = $350+tax!

I haven't had time to play games since getting married almost 7 years ago now. (Wow. Time flies.) So I got it primarily for the Blu-Ray capability, but at the time, the hd disc war victor was still undetermined. I did pick-up LEGO Stars Wars for PS3 a while back, but of course, haven't had time to play at all.

We're in S.F. at my parents on the weekends, so I've left the PS3 there for my dad to enjoy w/ his 55" Sony LCD projection set. And I watch a few scenes on Blu-Ray while folding laundry or reading the newspaper. Pretty pictures, baby.

When DVD first came out, my dad being an amateur audio/videophile got the top of the line $1200 Sony DVD player at the time. Still has it. Of course, that thing doesn't do all the things that a <$100 DVD player can do today like upconvert to 1080i, progressive can, HDMI out etc. It can't even play some CD-ROMs and DVD+/-R discs. Can't play MP3. My cousin, who worked at Sony at the time, helped us get it at the employee store, so my dad ended up paying just under $700 I think.

Now, my dad had the gaul to ask me what's the Ps3 good for since it costs $600. I was like, "Dad, dollar for dollar the Ps3 is a waaaaaay better buy today than that 1st Gen $700 Sony DVD player was back then." Plus I got it for just $350! Anyways, he's sold on the PS3 now.

My dad likes the PS3 b/c:
1. It streams his digital pictures and mpg movies from his WinXP across the home network.
2. It has memory card reader so he can just plug in his SD cards and view pictures.
3. It is also an upconverting DVD player now, after one of those software updates.
4. It's a Blu-Ray player.

Ironically, I thought the Blu-Ray part would be what he'd like the most. But funny thing is that's what he likes it for the least!!

It's also pretty easy to find Blu-Ray discs for pretty good discounts now...
Feel free to borrow:
Superman Returns
Mission Impossible 3
House of Flying Daggers (amazing colors)
Curse of the Golden Flower
Kung Fu Hustle
Ratatouille
Cars
Spider-Man 1, 2, 3
Casino Royale
LOST Season 3

Note that LOST is broadcast in 720p on ABC TV, but the Blu-Ray is full 1080p. It looks amazing compared to the already beautiful HD broadcast. Can't wait for them to release Seasons 1 and 2 on Blu-Ray too.

"Your Baby Never Looked Good In Blue" is a reference to an old Expose' song.

Lenovo ThinkPad T61 15" Widescreen

I finally got around to replacing the good 'ol T42, which is still in perfect condition, with a brand new Lenovo (bye Big Blue, hello Big Red) T61. IBM logo is gone. The T42 was 6 months out of a 3 year warranty and if anything happened to it that'd be it- IT won't support it.

So I've had the T61 for almost 2 months now...

The first impression is that it's thick and heavy. Carrying the bare laptop around (no case), it just feels bulky. The T42 size to weight ratio was so awesome, but I wanted more screen real estate so went w/ a 15" Widescreen which is the same height as the T42 LCD, but is wider. The screen is brilliant- like the T42's when it was brand new. The T42 screen is dim by comparison now.

Also, b/c of the size+weight, I realized that on family vacations the T42 will be the one tagging along since it's smaller+lighter. Usually this is just to Web surf a little bit and to offload pictures from camera memory cards each night. Then again, our Nikon D40 uses SD, which is so cheap now. Buying an 8Gb SD card would be worth not having to lug a laptop along. And for the Web, G has the iPhone. So, maybe the T42 will be keeping the T61 company now when we're away.

Design Issue #1:
Upon opening the lid, the bottom of the machine tipped up- the hinge is too tight! Need a lower static coefficient of friction there. My manager had the same problem on his new T61 14" LCD std. aspect ratio.

Design Issue #2:
Open lid. Screen turns on. Scan fingerprint to login. Screen turns off. WHAT? Hmm.
Close lid. Open lid. Screen turns on. OK now ready to work. Whew.
The fingerprint reader could be a little snappier.

I thought it was funny that you have to save at least two different fingerprint scans. You know, in case the Triads cut off one of them.

Battery life is amazing. The T42 was not Centrino, so the battery life was not so good. The T61 is Centrino Pro. So even w/ a 15" LCD cranked all the way up, Bluetooth and WiFi on, and NVIDIA graphics (not Intel bulit-in) and using only a 6 cell battery (doesn't protrude out the back like the 9 cell) plus the extra Adv. Ultra Bay battery, this baby lasts a loooong time.

Gripe: The docking connector on the T60/T61 is different from the T42. So my old docking station won't work. I think this is just a big ploy by Big Red to make Big Green by making us buy new docking stations, which aren't cheap btw.

Gripe: The power connector has changed too. Mo' Big Green.

The T61 shipped w/ Vista, but my Co. is still on XP. So IT had to wipe the drive and image XP. I wonder if that's why there are some software glitches.

Aside from the minor gripes, I'm thankful to have a brand new company issued laptop to use. Now G can use the T42 at home.

iGotOne

Well, actually iGotOne for her :)

My lovely wife gets the iPhone and I get her Samsung slider phone, which has a horrendous GUI.

It really is for her.

No-- really.

I'm not kidding!

I'm in front of a computer all day and have access to the Internet. In contrast, she's doing myriad sorts of things as a full-time mom and rarely has time to sit at a computer.

I, of course, get to mess w/ it when I'm not at work! Plus- I get to take the iPod Photo (40Gb) now!

A Watery Death (Again)

My 2nd Nokia 6230 went for a spin in the washing machine. The 1st one went into the water with me on Oahu back in May. This one used to be G's, but she's now using a horrible Samsung D807.

We all woke up late and I was rushing to get M to school. Threw a bunch of clothes in the washer and zipped outta there. The phone must have been in my hand and I let go of it when I was stuffing the laundry in the machine.

G heard the clunking noise when she threw everything in the dryer.

On the phone-
Me: I think I left my phone at home again.
G: Uh, no you didn't, you put it in the washing machine.
Me: What!?
G: How can you still laugh?

Nikon D40 6.1MP Digital SLR Camera Kit with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens

Where Is It?
Check out Ken Rockwell.

Update 9/12 - Yes, this is replacing the teeny-tiny Canon which is now in a thousand pieces. My dad has a D40 and has the 18-200mm lens. I''ll get one of my own eventually, until then I'll just borrow his. *grin*

Shoot! Dead Digital Camera. AGAIN.

Aw man. The lens isn't retracting back into the body. When it's turned on, the motor whirs but nothing happens. Worse yet, the LCD is completely black even in Setup and Playback modes.

All three of my digital cameras have died on me...

1. Sony DSC-F505V
Bought: 2000, Summer
Died: 2003, Spring
This was my first camera. No really. I never was really into picture taking, but I got this b/c I wanted to take lots of pictures w/ my new g/f. I thought the big honking rotating lens was pretty cool.

BTW, that g/f was G and we got engaged that summer and married a year later!


2. Sony DSC-F717
Bought: 2003, Spring
Died: 2007, Spring
We'd just had our 1st baby, M, and the F505V wasn't functioning properly. Sometimes the LCD would freeze up, or the pictures were all messed up. We had to get a new camera as we were just missing too many shots of Baby M.

The F717 is still my favorite camera of the three. Great resolution at the time and it shot pretty fast. I didn't mind that it was big. Actually I thought it was an asset as it had a big battery. After taking lots of shots, even with flash, the battery would last. With smaller cameras which had tiny batteries, when the battery drained down, the autofocus would become sooooooo sloooooooow.

We hadn't used this for a while b/c G used the Canon Elph b/c of it's portability. Earlier this year, when I fired this baby up, the LCD screen displayed a jumble of stuff. I'm holding out hope this can be recovered, but it's not looking good.

3. Canon PowerShot SD500 DIGITAL ELPH
Bought: 2005, December
Dead: 2007, August

We got this camera b/c the F717 was too bulky for G to lug around in the diaper bag. By now we had 2 boys- a 3 and a 1 y.o. So this was G's Christmas present that year.

Great thing was the portability and the 7 Megapixels. Plus it used SD cards and not expensive MemoryStick. But the small battery drained fast, hence the autofocus speed faded. Overall, this camera was in fact harder to shoot with. It was just too slow.

So... now what? I want a Nikon DSLR, but don't want to spend the money right now. My dad just got the D40, which he really likes. Maybe I'll borrow his old Sony compact camera... hope that one doesn't bite the dust on me too.

Lenovo ThinkPad T61: Spec'n it out

Can't believe the T42 is more than three years old and is out of the extended warranty already. It's still a toddler! Little G, my youngest son, isn't even 3 until December!

And so it's time to spec out a new laptop... (boo hoo hoo, crocodile tears)

One of the reasons I liked the T42 (14.1" LCD) was b/c it was so darn thin at just a tad over 1". The T-series seem to be getting ever so slightly thicker w/ each new line.

I fancied the 15.4" T61, but Lenovo support informed me that that measures in at 1.4" thick! How can Apple have 15" and 17" MacBook Pros that are just 1" thick?

The T61 only came w/ widescreen LCD's until just a few days ago, but the standard aspect ratio cost more. Since HDTV LCD's are 16:9 aspect ratio, it's cheaper for them to manufacture laptop LCD's to the same ratio.

From a Lenovo blog, they personally preferred the integrated graphics over the discrete nVidia as it gives well over one hour extra battery life for business use. But I want to drive the ThinkPad at it's highest resolution (1440 horiz. on the T42), and drive an external 24" LCD monitor at high res as well: Dual head display in extended desktop mode. More screen real estate = better work efficiency. Lenovo customer support said the integrated graphics only runs 1280- not good enough.

So here's the configuration I'm looking at:

• ThinkPad T61 with nVIDIA Graphics - 1 Year Depot Warranty
• Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7500 (2.2GHz 800MHz 4MBL2)
• Operating System: Genuine Windows XP Professional
• *No Vista for us yet. Lenovo dude said Micro$oft will disallow XP pre-loads sometime next year.
  
• Display type: 14.1 WXGA TFT, w/ Camera
• *Wonder if the camera is like the one on the Apple laptops?
  
• System graphics: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M (128MB)
• Total memory: 3 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
  
• Pointing device: UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader
• Hard drive: 160GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
• *The largest 7200RPM HD is 100Gb? I say more space wins.
• *Apple offers a 160GB 7200RPM HD. C'mon Lenovo, bring it!
  
• Optical device: DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer, Ultrabay Slim
• *A Blu-Ray disc drive would be awesome... later.
  
• Wireless card: Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN
• Bluetooth: Integrated Bluetooth PAN
• Battery: 6 cell Li-Ion Battery
• 3 year depot 9x5 Next Business Day
• Extra Battery: ThinkPad Advanced Ultrabay Battery

$1990.10 (per web-site)

Any suggestions?

Not that it matters since IT only lets us get Lenovo or Dell laptops, but a similar MacBook Pro is only $2573.00. It has the same CPU as above, only 2Gb of RAM, a 160GB 7200RPM HD, and the 15" screen, and AppleCare.

Free iPhone!

... for Apple employees that is!! "Isn't Steve Jobs such an awesome boss?!"
I originally saw the story at ThinkSecret: Steve Jobs: Free iPhones for Apple employees
Steve Jobs just pulled an Oprah "My favorite things."

If I were Mr. Jobs' speechwriter I would have scripted it like this...

Good Morning Everyone. Thank you all for taking time out of your busy work days to be here.
We're webcasting this across the entire company and I'm sorry you all couldn't be here... but-

Tomorrow is a momentous day. A day I've been looking forward to for a long, long time.
Tomorrow. Is. The. Nationwide. Release. of. (dramatic pause)
Ratatouille! (Uproaring laughter)
No, No- Really I'm not kidding. (big grin on his face)
It will continue the fine Disney/Pixar tradition pairing great storytelling and state-of-the-art computer graphics.

Okay. Really, tomorrow is a big day for us here at Apple.
Tomorrow, iPhone will be let loose for the masses.
I just wanted to thank you all for the long days you've put in to make it all possible.
And I want to thank everyone at Apple for working so hard in contributing to our success.

One of the best things about working here is that we build the best computer hardware and software and MP3 players in the world.
And we get to enjoy them in our daily lives.

So to the iPhone team assembled here, there's something hidden under your seats as a token of appreciation.
(People reach under their seats)
iPhones for everyone!
(Everyone goes nuts)

And here at Apple, regardless of where you contribute, we share in each other's successes.
So if you are watching via webcast, I'd like thank you as well.
See what's taped underneath your desks.
(Everyone on-line goes nuts)

Anyways, I guess you can tell I've seen some Oprah. They'll be getting their iPhones in July actually... Ok, not everyone's getting them... but close enough.

In stark contrast, instead of giving out free iPhones, my company announced layoffs this week, which was expected post Agere acquisition. (I'm safe.)

Sony GDM-FW900 Flat Widescreen 24" FD Trinitron CRT Monitor

I was juuuuuuuust on my way outta work for the weekend and was cleaning out my cubical a bit. Today's the last "Clean & Beautiful" day where they put out drop points around the building so we can dump the junk that accumulates. I rolled out an old 17" CRT monitor and finally got rid of a bunch of Amazon shipping boxes that was a fire hazard under my desk.

Just as I was about to go, my manager says I should scavenge to see if I could find a monitor to upgrade my current setup. At my cube, the ThinkPad (2373 9ZU) is usually docked; using it as my main screen since it runs 1400x1050 resolution. It also drives a 19" Dell LCD, maxes out at 1280x1024, which is an extended desktop so I can drag windows between the two screens.

Along the main corridor there must have been 15 CRT monitors that people removed from their cubes- NEC, Sun, Sony etc. I didn't think I'd find anything, but then I spied this bad boy-

Sony GDM-FW900 Flat Widescreen 24" FD Trinitron CRT Monitor

• 22.5-inch viewable screen
• 2,304 x 1,440 maximum resolution
• 0.27-millimeter dot pitch
• PC and Macintosh compatible
• Virtually flat viewing surface

More technical details at the bottom.

So my manager and I heaved the behemoth onto a chair w/out armrests and rolled it to my office. I was amazed that it was there for the taking and secondly that it appears to be in perfect working condition.

Anyways, this will probably be the main screen now w/ the laptop screen as the extension. At that resolution, the text is tiny. Plus I'm horrible at adjusting these things... any volunteers? For some reason, when I change my desktop settings (i.e. single screen to extended desktop) the image the laptop is sending doesn't fill the screen and it doesn't keep the settings where I stretched and centered the image.

BTW, I'm looking for the user manual online. No luck so far.

On a side note, the ThinkPad's 80Gb HD is really flaky. When the machine turns on/wakes-up the HD doesn't spin up. Uh-oh. I had to play w/ the power button quite a while tonight to get a vital file from it. Anyways, at least it's still under the 3yr extended warranty. This is actually a good thing- IBM will send someone out to replace it with a refurb HD (better than nothing). And since the warranty is up this September, I'll be getting a new Lenovo ThinkPad T61 (Santa Rosa)! Fortunately, we're still getting XP Pro, not Vista.

Sony GDM-FW900 Flat Widescreen 24" FD Trinitron CRT Monitor Additional Technical Details

• Compatibility: PC and Macintosh
• Display type: Color CRT
• Display size: 24 inches
• Diagonal viewable screen size: 22.5 inches
• Dot/pixel pitch: 0.23 to 0.27 millimeter
• Glass surface: High-contrast AR coating
• Power Requirements: 90-264V AC, 50/60 Hz
• Input signals: Analog RGB 0.7 V-pp, positive, 75 ohm, separate sync HS/DV TTL, composite sync, sync-on-green 0.3 Vp-p, negative
• Input connector and cable: 15-pin mini D-sub, 5BNC
• Maximum noninterlaced resolution: 2,304 x 1,440
• Maximum refresh rate: 160 Hz
• Horizontal frequency: 30 to 121 kHz
• Vertical frequency: 48 to 160 Hz
• Maximum display area: 482 by 308 millimeters (18.9 by 12.1 inches)
• Power on-off: Yes
• Contrast: Yes
• Brightness: Yes
• Horizontal and vertical position: Yes
• Horizontal and vertical size: Yes
• Color temperature: Yes
• Language select: Yes
• Display frequency: Yes
• Horizontal and vertical moire: Yes
• Pincushion: Yes
• Pin-balance: Yes
• Degauss: Yes
• Trapezoid: Yes
• Parallelogram: Yes
• Rotation: Yes
• Width: 22.5 inches
• Height: 19.7 inches
• Depth: 20.6 inches
• Weight: 92.6 pounds
• Parts: 3 years
• Labor: 3 years

Core 2 Duo Angels Inside

At the Stonestown Galleria this past Sunday, while G was doing some shopping, the boys and I did this:



Intel and Dell had a green screen setup in the middle of the mall. Not many people were doing it, but I thought this would be a nice surprise with Mother's Day coming up. As you can see, the boys hadn't warmed up yet, so they weren't as rambunctious as I'd hoped. Half-an-hour later, we got the video on a 256Mb flash stick to keep!

By the way, Conan O'Brien visited Intel HQ while his show was in the City last week. It's pretty funny, though Intel doesn't come out looking so good. His visit to Lucasfilm and ILM is pretty good too.

iWantOne

Steve Jobs' keynote introducing the iPhone is amazing. The iPhone looks amazing.

I'll stick w/ my trusty Nokia 6230 a little while longer and wait for the 3G iPhone w/ more storage.

I got all excited since I get 20% off equipment from Cingular w/ my company's corporate program, but Apple shot that down pretty quickly.

DishTV HD

Unfortunately, we don't get any TV reception using an indoor over-the-air antenna at the new place so we ended up getting DishTV and went for the HD DVR.

Observations:
- The connection to the satellite is not as reliable as when we had Dish before at our old place.
- Don't watch that much TV, but when scanning what to watch, I pretty much only look at the HD channels.
- Setup the DVR to record movies off HBO-HD (3 mo. free) so we can watch 'em whenever.
- Speaking of which, HBO-HD has Star Wars Ep. 1 and 3 in high-def already! It looks great, needless to say- much better than std. DVD.
- The NFL Network has "America's Game" which profiles a specific NFL team's season. Got the 1994 49ers one that has Steve Young, Brent Jones and Merton Hanks talking heads with narration by Bruce Willis. Nice to reminisce that last Super Bowl.
- Pretty much anything is better in HD... like Food Network.
- The Kung Fu Network (HD) is... interesting.

Anyways, the real fun will come when "LOST" re-starts next month. Maybe I'll even get on the "24," "Battlestar Galactica" bandwagons.

Also caught Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" on HBO-HD which I'll write about later, but in short: thumbs up.

Scavengers

If you didn't know, engineers are also scavengers.

The past few weeks at work, we've had "Clean and Beautiful Days." The facilities peeps put out tables and trash bins for everyone to clean out the junk from their cubes. So it goes, "one man's trash is another man's treasure."

Before my one week off for the holidays, I hadn't noticed anything worthwhile, but now that I'm back... !

Anyways, I snagged an IBM ThinkPad docking station for my T42. I already have one at work, but having one at home wouldn't hurt. Good find even though it's missing the power cable and brick, which should be cheap to replace. BTW, Lenovo changed the docking connector for the T60... too bad.

Also saw what looks like an HP LaserJet 4 something. We have a 4L at home now. It's buried under some other stuff, so I'll rescue it later tonight when there's less people around.

What I Wanted For Christmas...

... But didn't get.

This is an almost totally crazy list... in no particular order. Disclaimer at the end.

1. 2007 Lexus LS 460 L

   • This was lust at first sight (on the web). I don't know why. Then when I saw(ogled) and touched(caressed) it in person at the Taste of Lexus event... wow. By the time I got to the line to test drive it on a closed track they closed it. Bummer. I'd settle for the regular wheelbase version, w/out the massage chair in the backseat, no auto-parking system is fine. Then again, if we're going all out, why not go for the hybrid version?

2. Sony KDS-R60XBR2

   • I'm going for the 60" version b/c it fits into our cozy TV area. The 70" one would be too big, if there's such a thing. My 2 year old Sony KD-34XBR960 is just fine. I'll wait for prices to drop, and maybe even skip this altogether for a flat-panel one in a few years.

3. PlayStation 3, 60Gb

   • I don't even know why I want this but to want it. I hardly played any games on my PlayStation 2. With two toddlers now, it's even less likely I'll play games on this bad boy. Well, at least it's an economical high-def DVD player, but I sure do hope Blu-Ray beats HD-DVD.

4. Rumored 16:9 Touchscreen Apple iPod

   • This is cheating since this one doesn't even exist. Oh well... make sure it's the black color w/ the largest hard disk.

5. Kershaw Shun Stainless Steel 23-piece Block Set

   • These are the knives Alton Brown uses. I can't believe Costco carries these now!! I used to want a set of GLOBAL knives, but after seeing the Shuns....drool.

6. Nikon D200 Camera

   • This gift would have to come w/ a series of photography lessons. If I were to get a DSLR myself, I'd get the D80. But this is a wish-list, so D200.

7. San Francisco Giants Dugout Jacket, Black

   • W00T! G got this jacket for me for my birthday actually!! So technically, I didn't get it for Christmas, I got it about a week earlier! I got her the ladies version in white for Christmas, among other gifts. Now I can wear this to AT&T Park to shout, "Barryyyyyyy (Zito)!!!!"

Disclaimer: Truly Christmas, and Easter, is about God's everlasting love for us in sending his son Jesus to Earth as the way to reconcile us to him by dieing on the cross to pay for all our sins. Jesus resurrected on the third day, conquering sin and death, so those who believe in him would have everlasting life with God. The wish list was just for fun.

The Original PlayStation

With the PlayStation 3 coming out this week in Japan and the U.S., it's neat to see this at MSNBC.com: A second life for your first PlayStation

Turns out the original PlayStation is a high fidelity CD player! Mine is in great condition, put away in it's original box. I got it mainly to play Tekken 2 and got into other games later. PlayStation 2 came out October 2000, but I didn't have much time to play as we were in the middle of planning our wedding.

Scanning all the ad flyers in the Sunday paper yesterday, the PS3 is featured quite prominently. As well, at least 2-3 pages are devoted to Sony HDTV's alongside the shiny-black box. I wonder if Sony is offering some price reductions to spur TV sales w/ the PS3 fervor. May not be a bad move since demand is going to far outstrip supply of PS3 at launch, so why not capitalize on the hype and promote their TV's?

WooHoo! ThinkPad 600E lives! T42 is a little shaky though

My ThinkPad 600E is alive and kicking! It's been elevated from paper weight to something better. Maybe a dedicated BitTorrent downloader? Now I just need to find some batteries and I'm set!

On a related note, my T42 which is from work is really wacky after coming back from our Oahu vacation. Sometimes the hard drive doesn't spin up when the machine starts, especially when it was set on a stack of papers hence was not level. On a level desk, it seems OK now. Oh well, at least the company got the 3 year extended warranty. Once that is up, which is next year, they make us get new laptops! If they still allow us to get ThinkPads next year, my next one will be a Core 2 Duo or better!

I wish we could get MacBook Pros at work :)

Update: June 6, After playing phone tag w/ IT dude, he thinks the main system board is bent.

Star Wars Trilogy: Now in xTreme Ultra High Def w/ 32.3 Channel Sound

Lucasfilm announced that they will now release the original Star Wars Trilogy on DVD without the digital special effect enhancements from the 1997 theatrical re-release.

For the record, I have bought:

• Star Wars Trilogy (original versions) on LaserDisc from Columbia House ($1/each+shipping)
• Star Wars Trilogy (original versions) on LaserDisc, THX ($10/each from local store clearance)
• Star Wars Trilogy (special editions) on DVD, (~$25/set from online store)
• Ep 1, 2, 3 on DVD

I don't think I'm going to get this "new" old edition. It's not even Blu-Ray! Then again, even if it were (or will be), I don't think I'm going to get it. As an aside, there aren't that many movies which I already have on DVD which are worthy of the eventual upgrade to high-def disc- the LOTR Trilogy and the Pixar films are the 1st to come to mind.

The other thing is that the press release states that they heard the outcry from the fans demanding these editions. I don't believe that for one second. Lucas stated many times that he would not release the original versions of these films: a few years ago, they were released on VHS w/ THX cert. and they said,"This is your last chance to own the originals."

A similar thing happened for the DVD edition. Lucas said he wouldn't release them (special editions of the original trilogy) until the new movies were done and there'd be a super-box set. Of course, once they realized that they were about to miss out on the DVD $$$-train as high-def was on the horizon, they released it right away.

PlayStation 3

So Sony announced launch details for PlayStation 3. It will come in two versions for $499 and $599- the cheaper one is missing the flash card slots, HDMI port, WiFi and will have a 20Gb hard drive rather a 60Gb one.

For a game machine that is pretty darn expensive. I remember my PlayStation 2 was $250 at launch and I barely played it that much.

But for a high-def DVD player, the $599 one is CHEAP! Plus it's a game machine! At the November launch you're gonna see audio/videophiles competing to get 'em along side the full-grown (20-30 y.o.) kiddies. In comparison, my father's first DVD player was a top of the line Sony that had an MSRP of $1200!! (We knew someone who legitimately got it for us cheaper.)

Almost everyone is decrying the fact that "low-end" one is missing an HDMI port to transmit the video signal to your brand new HDTV. What's the big deal? I'm pretty sure the A/V Multi-Out port can output full HD component video anyways, and most studios have already said they will not downgrade the resolution for the analog connectors.

Anyways... if you're wondering, I don't think we're getting one anytime soon.