While marketers are trying to upsell to the latest and greatest "Smart TVs," I have a very simple TV that's smarter than any "Smart TV":

1. Older (circa 2008 or 2009) Core2Quad PC, with VLC, XBMC, etc. There is a dual-tuner Hauppage tuner card installed, which is hooked to an external antenna. The mouse and keyboard are Gyromouse products, you just wave the remote around in the air to move the mouse cursor.

2. Epson 8350 HD Projector, mounted on the ceiling

3. 115 inch diagonal Grey screen (actually, a sheet of Formica-like laminate material mounted to the wall using 3M Command strips)

4. Carver 200WPC amplifier driving a pair of B+W Matrix 805 speakers. These speakers were great in the 90's and are still sounding incredible.

5. Carver Amazing Subwoofer. Awesome room shaking tight bass.

Note that the only part that was purchased specifically for video were the projector and the screen. Everything else was left over from previous projects and households. Heck, I've had the audio equipment since the early to mid 90s. If any one part gets obsoleted, I can upgrade for a minimal cost without trashing the entire system. For example when the new laser projectors come out next year, I may buy one to replace my existing projector.

I only have 2 remotes (3 if you include the wireless keyboard), one to turn on the projector and one that is the gyromouse for the PC. People have no problem using it, because "it's just like using a Windows PC". That's because it *is* a Windows PC with a fancy mouse-remote! There's really 3 parts to a smart TV:

1. Image: The high-resolution display with the best possible image quality

2. Sound: The audio equipment. Amplifiers and speakers that can reproduce the soundtrack with good fidelity and frequency response

3. The brains. In order to be truly a "Smart" TV, the software *must* be upgradable and *must* not be limited to what the TV manufacturer slaps together. The manufacturer has a vested interest in 'encouraging' people to upgrade to a newer model. Also, once a product is no longer being sold, how much engineering resources can reasonably be allocated to doing software patches and upgrades on the TV?

'Smart TV'? No, my TV will always be smarter because it's a general purpose PC with awesome sound and video attached.

Syrian internet is dead!

(Ok, I know it's overused... but in this case it could actually apply!)

Welders use a sheet of LCD material, with a solar cell to power it. When they strike an arc, the solar cell powers the LCD, which darkens and protects their vision. Glasses could be made for aviators which include rapid polarizing ability based on a rapid change in the relative intensity of green light (in the range common to green lasers). This will protect the vision of the pilots. Alternatively, purchasing laser glasses which are designed to highly attenuate the green laser wavelength would help immensely. Come on, it ain't rocket science... jus' plain old planes and whirlybirds!

Him? Oh he's totally screwed. He'll be lucky to ever see daylight again in his lifetime, which may be prematurely shortened. Pissing off the people who make the rules is always a bad thing, especially if an example needs to be made.

No trials, just lots of tribulations.

During economic recessions, the consumption of electricity goes down and hence the price of electricity has to go up to cover the costs.

During economic booms, the consumption of electricity goes up, and hence the price of electricity has to go up to cover the costs.

It's like those thermodynamics laws, which paraphrase to "You can't win" and "You also can't break even."

Man, and just yesterday I had mod points. Too funny.

There are too many links for this topic, so here's my quickie google search. Pick your article! https://www.google.com/search?q=tsa+liquid+drink+eyedropper

Best wishes on your upcoming therapy, I hope it works for you.

I wish I hadn't used up the last of my mod points a little while ago... I'd mod you up.

I can see it now... Mom, Dad, are watching TV in the Den. Little Susie comes in, and the next set of commercials include a "My Little Pony" advert. In walks Junior, and up pops an ad for adult videos and Jergens.

Or Wifie is watching TV (with ads for feminine products). In walks Hubby, and the next commercial is for divorce lawyers. Screaming commences.

There's just so many ways for this camera concept to go badly...

Nope, 688 class subs are made of high yield-strength steel. It's not the metal of the hull that burns, it's all the insulation that's glued onto the inside of the hull. There's plenty of flammable materials on a sub, most of which produces huge amounts of highly toxic fumes. Added to the danger is that in drydock periods, the hatches are fouled with hoses going to various systems. Many of these hoses are air hoses, pressurized to about 100psi. If the fire ruptures one of these hoses, there's a ready source of oxygen directly at the fire source.

Added to that problem is that there are areas on the submarine that no-one can access after the ship is constructed, due to installed piping and wiring blocking access. I remember on one sub, there was a beer bottle visible in the outboard frame leftover from new-con, but there was absolutely no way to get to it to remove it without crazy amounts of cutting. If a fire spreads to these inaccessible areas, you're screwed.

Fighting a fire on a submarine sucks.

I have my Google Apps email set up this way, with wildcards. When I start getting spam, all I do is change my email address with the originating site, and set up a filter using the To: field. Send that spam straight to the trash folder. I've been able to identify several breaches of companies email lists using this wildcarding setup, and it's always fun to call the company and let them know that their customer email list has been hacked... Usually it's the little mom and pop companies, but sometimes it's medium sized businesses.

Of course, sometimes it's my own fault... once I was silly enough to post on an eBay forum. The forum automatically attached my email (ebay@mydomain.com). Within a matter of minutes, I started getting huge amounts of spam for listiing software, and "Your ebay account has been blocked, please click this link andlogin to verify your account" type of crap. 6+ years later, I'm still getting spam to that account, but it automatically get captured by a filter and sent straight to the trash folder.

The one I haven't figured out is how to filter by characterset. For some reason, I get tons of russian spam to various random accounts at my domain, all of which Google catches and tosses into my spam folder. Since I don't speak russian, if I could just filter on some common russian words (watch, viagra, cialis, penis, manly, etc) I could keep my spam folder even less cluttered.

One of the comments on the Youtube video summs it up perfectly. That was the most *nominal* launch in history. Everything worked as designed. Beautiful! Congrats to the entire team.

I get probably 5 pieces of actual mail per month (bills, statements, etc). When I moved into my new house 6 months ago, I was getting about 8 bulk mailing pieces per day. I used every available opt-out method to avoid getting this junk mail delivered, and now I get maybe 2 or 3 pieces of junk mail per week. Overall, opting out has dramatically reduced the amount of bulk mail I receive. The important part is how easy it was to opt-out. I spent maybe 2 hours on various websites filling out basic forms. Now, when I get a spam mail, I try to opt-out from it online (google is my friend). Usually I can find a site or phone number to get my name removed from their mailing list.

If the Post Office business model depends on people being willing to accept bulk advertising as an unavoidable nuisance, then their business is in trouble. If opt-out laws get passed, then it'll really put a dent in their profits. I hate spam, and I don't care if it's on paper or electronic. If I can avoid it, I will.