More Technology Woes, With a Happy Ending

After nearly a month of computer and technology woes at Greenlee Gazette, Greenlee Graphics (my home business) and at my work-a-day job as well, you'd think I'd get to breathe a little sigh of relief, and get back to ordinary life, no more dabbling in "new" electronic doohickies and whatnot, right?

But I'm destined to always have to be upgrading and then problem solving, it would seem. The problem was straightforward: my 2007 flat-panel Toshiba HDTV/DVD combo player died. It's my office TV, and it gets a lot of use, not just because I'm at my computer too often, but because The Other Half is so often to bed so early, for work. I get stuck in my office frequently. But solving the problem isn't quite so easily solved as you would think.



It's beginning to look a bit like Mission Control in here! Now, to add another video card to the computer, and
run another cable to the TV, and. . . .

I wanted the DVD built in, because that's the way I've been doing things for my last two (yes, I've had two previous flat-panel TVs, can you believe time flies that fast?) set-ups, and was thinking small. I did the research, narrowed my search down to an RCA 24" model at Fry's. I should mention that I was replacing a 19" set that had an enormous bezel on it, so a 24" takes up about the same space. Anyway, the RCA was the best pick out of a small pool  of options, and it was $169.99 on Fry's website. So, I decided to go get one on Sunday.

Not recommended:
RCA LED24C45RQD 24"
Just trust me.

Surprise, surprise, they had plenty of them, but they were $219.99. Up $50 overnight! But it was really all they had to choose from, so I bought it. I assembled it, plugged it in, and. . .I was underwhelmed to say the least. The screen was clearly pixelated, especially up close, and the sound was atrocious. I mean, so bad that it was a real deal-breaker. I tried plugging in some USB speakers that came with my computer, and it was an improvement, but only barely. It had to go back, or I would have been very disappointed. Too bad I packed it up, and forgot the three screws to the base, and that The Other Half had to drive them to the store for me while I waited! Anyway. . .

Recommended:
Insignia NS-24E400NA14
Sure, just a store brand, but good!

After taking the RCA back to Fry's, I headed to Best Buy, a place that feels oddly out-of-time. I'm wondering how much time they have left, just a gut feeling. But they had a 24" HDTV/DVD combo, by their in-house brand, Insignia. It looked good. It sounded good. And it was $189.99. Cool, I'll take it! And then the salesman dude sold me the wrong set. And here I thought the $139.99 price was an unexpected Labor Day discount*. I'd already been rung up, and would have had to wait in line at customer service, and said to myself, screw it. I put it in the car, drove down to Sam's Club, and bought a Samsung Blu-Ray wifi player for $79.99.


Also a good buy: Samsung Blu-ray Player
BD-FM57C

Long story short (I know, too late), I'm now setup with blu-ray on a really nice 24" set in my office. Though I don't need Netflix or YouTube on my TV (I have a second monitor on my computer) in my office, I now can. The sound is good, the picture is great (Family Guy was alarmingly clear and bright), and the player is small enough that it's not a problem. The best part: I came in about $9 less than the crappy RCA cost me!

On to the next problem!

* As it turns out, it was a Labor Day sale, $40 off to be specific, so it was a good day indeed.
 

Computer Woes: New Hewlett Packard Croaks

Well, my shiny new (as of 6 months ago) Hewlett-Packard computer blew a gasket this weekend. Or, more precisely, it blew its power supply. It's been randomly restarting of late, but I thought that had something to do with downloading the pre-release of Windows 7. So, Bill Gates can relax, as I won't be sending him an angry letter. Yet.

But HP might not be so lucky. Seriously, WTF? It is true that I rarely shut my computer off, preferring to have it ready when I'm ready to use it. But six months? We used to leave the computers at the bank I worked at on 24/7, and those were 1987 IBM PS/2s! This is the second PC I've owned from HP, and this is the second power supply burn-out as well. Now, I probably could have it fixed for free, since I'm still under warranty. But what a pain in the ass. I know how to change a power supply, and they're inexpensive, so I'll fix it myself.

Trouble is, I broke the power supply connector to the hard drive when unplugging it. I say I broke it, but it must have already been cracked, given I did nothing that should have broken it. So, we drove over to Fry's Electronics, only to find that they close at 7 pm on Sundays, something they don't put on their web site. Poop. So, until after work--assuming all goes well--I'll be using our inferior but serviceable Dell notebook computer, which has never had a power supply issue.

Lazy Saturday: More Angel and Charlie's Angels

First image from WaggingTales
Second image from OdeonDirect

As you can see, my weekend blogging is once again at an ebb. I'm quickly approaching my 2-year anniversary as a blogger, and it is fair to say that at times--especially weekends--I just want to get out from behind my computer screen a little.

So today, I embarked on a quest across the Las Vegas valley. After watching Real Time with Bill Maher on the DVR (a little more contentious this week, with two conservatives on the panel), I headed out across the valley with a goal in mind. I've just finished watching season one of Angel, the spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I wanted season two. I got the first set at Best Buy over on Rainbow Blvd., and figured that would be the best place to go.

Unfortunately, what was $17 a couple of weeks ago is $34.99 now. Bummer. So I tried Sam's Club next door. Nope. But I remembered that Costco had them for sale not long ago, and decided what the hey, I'm out this far, might as well run up to Charleston Blvd. and get it there. No dice. But looky there, another Best Buy in the same shopping center! But all they had was the complete box set for $124.99. And I already own season 1.

This Best Buy did have an interesting item, Charlie's Angels season 1. Last night, I watched Farrah's Story, the heart-rending documentary about Farrah Fawcett's tragic battle with anal cancer, and had already considered buying the set. And here it was, on sale, in a cute little tin lunchbox. But it was broken, and there was only one. Back in the car!

I decided to go back to the Rainbow Best Buy, buy the (overpriced) Angel, season two, and also to seek out Charlie's Angels season one. Well, I got Angel, but the little lunchbox was nowhere to be seen. I still had one more option, ironically the closest one to my house, Fry's Electronics at Town Square.

Fry's is one of those stores I can spend an afternoon in, sometimes walking out with either nothing, or with far more than I intended to buy. They have a very nice selection of movies and other DVDs, but the prices can fall just about anywhere from cheap to expensive. But, surprise! Angel, any season you want, is $29.95. And they have tons of them, so they don't look as if they'll run out. While they didn't have the lunchbox, they did have the first season of Charlie's Angels, at $19.95, so I bought it.

I hadn't known that Charlie's Angels debuted as an ABC-TV Movie of the Week, but was pleased to see it included in the set. The cast was the same, with a different office workplace, and an extra character (the recently out-of-the-closet David Ogden Stiers). I watched that and the first official episode, and found them. . .interesting. The crackling chemistry between Fawcett, Jaclyn Smith and (my favorite) Kate Jackson was still there. David Boyle was great as Bosley, and John Forsythe was suave (and creepy with all the bimbos) as Charlie.

CA suffers from "70s action show syndrome" though, a peculiar malady that also infects Starsky & Hutch, CHiPs, Wonder Woman and countless other shows of the era. The pacing is odd, the plotting thin, and the character actors just a little too recognizable. Of course the clothing is terrible too, though not so much on the leads. And one comment has to be made about the men's wardrobe on 70s shows like this. I remember that pants were cut tightly back then, but I had no idea that you could almost tell the male characters' religion, if you catch my drift. Charlie's Angels was dubbed T&A or "Jiggle TV" for the lack of bras, but it wasn't just the ladies who were showing off body parts!

It was still a great deal of nostalgic fun, watching the first couple of episodes. Farrah is particularly gorgeous, with the other two ladies only slightly lower on the beauty scale. The trio seemed to really get along, and no matter how preposterous the plots might be, you never lose interest because you care about the characters. My review: Recommended

As for Angel, I only watched the first episode from the second season, but liked it a lot. David Boreanaz was very funny doing demon karaoke. I've got to wonder if he really sings that badly, or if he had to ham it up. Anyway, that's my Saturday, outside of other minor chores like grocery shopping. Hope everybody else had a productive day. For me, I might just knuckle down and get some blogging done.

Then again, I might not!

Circuit City Going Out of Business (in USA)

Image from source, Raw Story

It would be easy to point to Circuit City's failure as yet another sign of this crappy economy, and it is. But Circuit City always seemed like an anachronism to me, doomed to fail sooner or later. It will join other long-term retail chains that live only in our memories, like Service Merchandise, Good Guys, CompUSA, Woolco, Zayer. . . OK, some of those only live on in my memories. Anyway, I've visited Circuit City from time to time (once I moved to Las Vegas). But I couldn't tell you whether or not I've ever actually bought anything there.

Circuit City was the place you went to see how good a deal you could get elsewhere, like at Ultimate Electronics, Best Buy or Fry's. And--though this is just a gut feeling--Best Buy is starting to feel a little anachronistic too. Wonder how they're doing?

[Excerpt]

Circuit City to liquidate 567 stores

Electronics retailer Circuit City said Friday it would liquidate all its 567 US stores after failing to restructure the company, throwing the future of its 30,000 workforce into uncertainty. . .

Read more at: Raw Story