That would fall under the Dilbert Principle

---PCJ

Obligatory Freakazoid Clip
---PCJ

The Archos TVPlus DVRs were like this. While they defaulted to a (now defunct) subscription TV listings service, you were always just one keypress from a standard "set it yourself" date/channel/time-on/time-off/quality menu. I never actually used the subscription service because of this.

Also, these boxes recorded standard MP4 AVI files with PCM audio that you could easily offload through the USB port (possibly over Ethernet/wifi too). Pity they never made a set-top HD version.*

(then again, the above may explain why they didn't...hmm)

---PCJ

*(their "Internet Tablet" series PMPs could behave like a PVR and record 720P (if I recall correctly) when docked in an extra-cost "DVR station", but no set-top version existed)

Not only that, but someone managed to find and preserve scans of an article on its construction: http://forums.finalgear.com/general-automotive/awesome-thread-automotive-edition-34036/page-131/

Unfortunately it seems the real "Big Bus" was scrapped. Maybe some goofy automotive-reality show could attempt to re-create the thing.

---PCJ

Greyhound's newest coaches already have seat belts: (as well as a number of smaller, though probably affiliated carriers)

I've even ridden these NYC-Montreal through the notorious Adirondack Northway, but haven't felt any need to use the seat belts. The cupholder, power outlets and WiFi, however...

--PCJ

In contrast, I went to my local Micro Center (Yonkers, NY) looking for some video editing software. The one I decided on before I left home showed one copy remaining at that location on the website. Upon arriving at the store I got lucky and walked right up to the item in question (first time using the software section of that particular location) and was out of there in record time. Arriving home a couple of hours after I left (subway/bus connections worked extremely well that night), I noticed I still had the screen up and refreshed it just out of curiousity. It now reported the item as out of stock.

I should probably add that MC's site allows you to limit what you see to whatever your local store has in-stock by picking it from a drop-down list of locations at the top of the page. Before I got used to doing that I would find items "in stock" that weren't actually available at my local outlet (which wouldn't have been a factor if I was just ordering online, but my "local" MC is close enough to go out there on a whim).

---PCJ

Just like this one. And this one

(I'd been saving those two. Like one would save a S.B.D. :) )

---PCJ

Correction: 25 sleepers. There is an option to expand the total order.

(Funny, I thought the 'submit' button was only available after you previewed your post.)

---PCJ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewliner#Viewliner_II

An order for at least 50 of these was placed less than a couple of months ago, among other cars built on this platform.

---PCJ

This past month I was in Myrtle Beach, SC for a family function. Back in the '80's, my summer vacations would invariably come down here for a several-day stay. I didn't particularly care for the beach, but the amusement parks with their large arcades (particularly the Myrtle Beach Gran Prix (just learned it's defunct as of 2006)) were the highlight of my stays there.

We didn't go anywhere near those places this year--assuming any of them still existed (we were actually only staying in a rented condo just outside of the main strip during preparations for a wedding a couple of counties further east). I did however note the irony that the main reason I would have for going to these places was now sitting in the MAME folder on my laptop.

Once, arcade games were so commonplace that as a grade-schooler I compiled maps of neighborhood shops with coin-ops tucked inside, down to the layout of the store with the actual physical locations of the games therein. It figures that once I actually had an ample supply of quarters that all this would have long fallen by the wayside.

---PCJ

...since they're the heaviest users of cellphones. And (at least in the US) they are, for all intents and purposes, the only ones who wear rubber boots nowadays.

---PCJ

I found one item that fits the "DVR that works like a VCR" description--I needed a solution to the problem of DVD recorders that die after a year or two of service. The biggest problem is it's a discontinued item and it doesn't do high-def (I'm not on the HD bandwagon yet, and all of the old VCR recordings I want to convert are SD, so yeah). It's the Archos TV+, and although it did at one time offer a subscription-based tv guide function (now defunct, if I recall corectly), it will happily function like a typical VCR without it, down to in-person recording or VCR-style programming. Oh, it also does MP3 and photos.

On top of that, it can be hooked to your home network, and has USB ports for connecting mass-storage devices to view, transfer or backup recordings. Although I haven't tried it, it's also supposed to let you perform rudimentary edits (like removing commercials) on your recordings, either overwriting the original, or generating a new file.

Although it isn't advertised as such, it will play Flash Video files, although like the Archos 5-series PMP's it's based on, I think it's limited to those with Sorensen/H.263 compression. I haven't tried it with H.264 FLVs, despite the format list on its Wikipedia entry saying so (which I feel is suspect).

Too bad Archos didn't hype the device's ability to function without a subscription, there may have been enough interest in it to warrant a HD version.

---PCJ

Already done :) Texas High Speed Rail & Transportation Corporation. And lookie here, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio are already part of the proposed route.

---PCJ