All right y'all. You call yerselves geeks? This is your chance to prove it.

In an ill-advised bout of christmas cheer, my girlfriend has decided (over my not so strenuous objections) to take me to England in January. To celebrate, I've decided to get myself a digital camera but have absolutely no idea as to where to buy from, what to look for or how much to pay.

Requirements:

CHEAP. I can't stress this enough. I know ya get what ya pay for, but I'm looking for the best deal for the least amount of money. I really can't afford to spend more than $150 on this piece of tech, and even that's pushing it. (this isn't including any external memory cards, though it'd be REALLY nice if it came with one instead of relying initially on built-in storage. More on that in a sec)

Once that's out of the way...

Ideally, this little gadget would have a physical zoom (instead of an optical one) and an LCD of some description. I'd also like a way to download my pics from the camera to my iPod. As far as I know the only easy way to do this is via CF with a reader attached to the 'pod. This is managable, but I'd like to not have to pay more for an extra memory card, ie, I'd rather it have no interal storage and an included CF card (or, of course, both) rather than it just coming with internal memory.

This seems to be the best deal I've found so far, but then again, as I've said, I have practically no idea as to what I'm talking about. :)

C'mon guys: What're my odds of finding exactly what I'm looking for, and where should I do my shopping?

Triv

Ok y'all, survey time. I just got a good deal on a Playstation2 (yeahyeah, I'm behind the times - sue me ;) and need to know what games to look for. Here's the catch - I'm looking for older (read: cheaper) games. I know the Matrix and X-Men -based discs are supposed to be awsome, but you'll never find me spending $50 for them. I'm looking to spend around $20 each.

Any suggestions?

Triv

My iPod just died. I pushed my headphone plug into the jack and heard a tiny little *snap*. I now only get sound from one ear. This is not cool - I've sold my discmen and boxed all my CDs. My job is mindless - how the hell am I supposed to deal with it without something to keep me company? More importantly: why did apple make the connector plastic? That was an error - I've thought so for months and now that thinking has bit me. Hard.

I will be eagerly awaiting my repair status confirmation. :(

Triv

I have WAAAAAAY too much stuff. We stuffed my mom's car last weekend, TWICE, and it still looked like nothing had changed in our old apartment.

So I went on a rampage last night, threw everything I could into boxes and stacked them, moved the now empty bookcases against the wall to get 'em outta the way. Looks much much better but there's still quite a bit left to sort through, throw out and pack.

I have so many books it's not even funny. 4 boxes of fiction, 2 boxes of musical scores/sheet music, a box of tech/textbooks. Two boxes of CDs (that are, thanks to iTunes and external storage, staying in the closet). Two boxes of movies. At LEAST 3 full bags of clothes.

That's not even counting the furniture (shudder). AT least we don't need to move my 6-foot desk. Or the bed, or the couches. We had enough money from me selling some old tech and from the girl saving like crazy, to buy new stuff.

Hopefully I'll be ready to move the computer by next weekend. Once that (ok, and the cats) are there the balance shifts from living in Queens and stopping by manhattan to the other way 'round. Can't wait.

Triv

Hell yes. After suffering the degradation of living in what amounts to a retirement home (IE, Queens County, NYC) for close to two years, the girl and I are moving away from the roommate- whose-primary-qualities-shall-not-be-named into Manhattan. Not even a dangerous, evil part of Manhattan, but 26th street. 4 blocks from school. A quick 20 minute busride from work (instead of the hellish 80 minute bus-train-train-walk combo I'm working with now). Hardwood floors. Southern exposure. Lower power bills. Blocks from everything (like, oh, I dunno bars with people my age in them), lotsa food, cheap groceries and delis. In short, heaven.

I initally moved to Queens to get away from my parents - it needed to be done, but getting away from home isn't worth completely destroying what are supposed to be the FUN years of my life.

When I told the roommate she...well, she wasn't happy. But after 2 years of dealing with her viral nature (spreading to any clean part of the apartment like a fungus) I'm ready to slap her. She's lucky I didn't just move out in the middle of the night when she wasn't there. Bah.

I start moving Sunday. Giddygiddygiddy.

Triv

I took the plunge. I ordered broadband. My DSL Modem should arrive tomorrow and I need some pointers.

Here's the question: What can I do with it? Apart from faster browsing and quick system updates and all that jazz, what sort of stuff can you DO with an always on connection? Any good applications out for OSX that...monitor...stuff? Or something? I'm sure I'll find stuff but I'd like a head start.

Triv

This guy seriously pissed me off
My response (I couldn't help it) is here.

Triv

Ok, so I was thinking about Apple ditching ADB and serial ports completely in favor of USB and Firewire, so I started thinking about the next thing to go.

Then, as I looked at my flatscreen iMac I had my epiphany. There's nothing about the interface of that computer you don't need. All that matters is the screen, the keyboard and (occasionally) the optical drive. Since you don't need the CD drive exposed constantly, you move the screen out of the way when you need to access it. Sweet idea.

Then it hit me: optical disk-drives will go. Think about this piece of tech:

Instead of placing a disk in the drive we'll have a small, flat box with a cheap, short-range wi-fi transmitter in it. It'll probably be completely solid state, not optical or magnetic. You take the thing within range of your computer and the computer automagically mounts the disk just like a CD. No more need for truly 'removable' media.

This is a far future thing (and how you power the drive is a problem) but I'm willing to be we'll see this in the next...10? 20?...years.

:)

Triv

This is a continuation of the original discussion (found here) that has been archived. Check the link for current submissions. I'll be posting the best of what's been sent in so far this upcoming weekend. Doesn't mean the project's over, it's just good to have milestones. :)

The (edited) original post:

I need a little help with a paper I'm thinking of writing. The subject is the perfect song lyric.

This is the basic idea: there's lots of music out there. Lots of it sucks. Some of it's good. A small percentage of it is blow-you-away awsome. But sometimes a lyric hits you so hard, a gut-wrenching, purely visceral/emotional response it almost makes the whole song worth listening to just to get to that good bit, even if, without that lyrical punch, it's completely worthless. I'm not talking about a good lyric or a cute turn of phrase, I mean a lyric that instantly fires up your imagination, planting a picture of a scene so eloquently you're left out of breath.

I'm not asking for your favorite lyrics. I'm not asking for what a lyric means to you (it should be apparent in and of itself). I'm asking for a lyric that creates a scene, gives you backstory, tells you much much more than the words do by themselves, all in a few lines.

So please, reply here. Tell your friends. Just tell 'em to reply here with their choices. Be sure to include the artist, the song and the lyric. I'm planning to publish this if I get enough of these together, and you'll get credit where it's due (of course). :)

Thanks y'all.

Triv

Woo Hoo!

I'm goin' to Washington DC for thanksgiving. I REALLY need a vacation and my parents are kindly supplying one.

Anyone in the DC area wanna grab a beer this weekend? :)

Triv

Y'all know those cute little quotes that appear at the bottom of any /. page? The one listed right now is "You have a deep interest in all that is artistic." which happens to be the fortune I got with my chinese food last night.

Spooky. :)

Triv

I need a little help with a paper I'm thinking of writing. The subject is the perfect song lyric.

This is the basic idea: there's lots of music out there. Lots of it sucks. Some of it's good. A small percentage of it is blow-you-away awsome. But sometimes a lyric hits you so hard, a gut-wrenching, purely visceral/emotional response it almost makes the whole song worth listening to just to get to that good bit, even if, without that lyrical punch, it's completely worthless. I'm not talking about a good lyric or a cute turn of phrase, I mean a lyric that instantly fires up your imagination, planting a picture of a scene so eloquently you're left out of breath.

I'm not asking for your favorite lyrics. I'm not asking for what a lyric means to you (it should be apparent in and of itself). I'm asking for a lyric that creates a scene, gives you backstory, tells you much much more than the words do by themselves, all in a few lines.

WARNING: THIS IS NOT EASY. I've been thinking about this for 6 months. I have, as of yet, thought of two.

#1: Don Henley, "The Boys of Summer"

"Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.
A little voice inside my head said 'don't look back, you can never look back.'"

and

#2: Third Eye Blind, "Slow Motion"

"Miss Jones taught me English,
but I think I just shot her son."

It's worth noting that these aren't from my favorite bands. I actually pretty much despise "Third Eye Blind" and the rest of that song is absolutely terrible. It's a pity that the lyric is the first one heard in the song - I might listen to the rest of it just to hear it. That's the point, really.

So please, reply here. Tell your friends. Just tell 'em to reply here with their choices. Be sure to include the artist, the song and the lyric. I'm planning to publish this if I get enough of these together, and you'll get credit where it's due (of course). :)

Thanks y'all.

Triv

Arthur Dent might've hated Thursdays but I love 'em. My dad comes into the city and buys me lunch. GOOD lunch. I just had the flakiest, most delicious chicken pot pie and a killer salad. Not bad considering the poor man's lunch I get the other 4 days of my working week - Pretzels, Ginger ale and nicotine.

Our Thursdays remind me of how much he misses talking to me. I don't regret moving out, not one bit. It just throws things into a different light when his overwhelming DADness is across the Hudson save for this one day a week. Things and people don't look so...imperfect...when the contact's minimal. Can't see the blackheads from 12 miles away.

I'm stuffed. I want to take a nap, not move books around. :)

Triv

I saw the strangest advertising blitz I've ever experienced on 42nd street (NYC) yesterday. I was standing outside the main library's side door at lunchtime (I work there) when twenty-five people wearing purple bodysuits (velvet bodysuits) and little four-colored wings on rollerblades shot past me. They were carrying signs that said things like "I (heart) NY! I (heart) MSN8!" and trying to interest passersby. I didn't know Microsoft did that kind of marketing. I don't know what to think of it, honestly. Regardless of what I thought about it, as an advertising strategy it certainly worked - I remembered it, and I'm writing it here. Not that I'd ever use it, but still.

Weird. :)

Triv