hey HDTV, I guess you have *drumroll* a HDTV have you read this article:
early adopters screwed by blu ray and HD DVD

I just hope your expensive screen has a digital input. Sorry if it doesnt. Damn those MPIAA/RIAA and the DMCA

Maybe we'll just have to ride more rather than watch other people living their lives. Most of what you see on the teev in fargn crap anyway.

LOL, agreed Berny !!

close! its actually a car thing, but most think its HD TV. Holden Dealer Team VK SS ( i.e my car) jsut a standard username that i use on forums....

have been looking at HDTV fora while tho, i think Blu Ray is going to cause all sorts. word is that its allready knocked back the realease of playstation 3

Next he'll be making jokes about the Holocaust (double )

"Looking for someone to blame for all this? Pick your target: AACS was jointly developed by Disney, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, and Warner."

There's your answer right there.

I remember when the zoning bullsh¡t was going on with DVD players, and one company in South Melbourne bought out some region free DVD players from Japan. I don't know what the deal is with HDTV, but a similar thing might happen with them.

Anyway, I'm not sure the future is discs anyway. I know one friend with a high speed internet connection that downloads everything he wants to watch via the Net and then plays it back on his TV. That means as soon as something is broadcast - no matter where it is in the world - he gets it first. No more waiting 12 months for an episode of something that screened in the US yesterday.

Maybe it depends on your age or interests. First thing I thought when seeing your username was "ahh the blue SS, great exhaust note on those!"

I agree Tiger, physical media will be dead.
I've had an old x-box, chipped and upgraded to 180GB disk for about 3 years which is hooked up to my stereo/TV and gets used as a music jukebox. Also has all my photos and ripped dvds available on demand.
Next step was to hook up to pc with tv card on local network and i've got home made TIVO for about $300 aud.

Not exactly slick but technology moves so fast I'm fed up getting burned

You could always do what sane ppl do... be a very late adopter. You don't miss out on anything except losing money. IT geek I may be, but I don't fall for the hype with a fistfull of hard earned dollars

It's even easier to avoid getting burned when you a) don't understand what all the promises of the new technology mean and b) don't have the required cash either. Ah...what it is to live in blissful ignorance

BTW anyone got any suggestions for a reasonable printer/scanner for home PC that I can get for cheap? Basically to print photos and handle the wife's uni assignments

being ignorant, no, not really. I got a Brother MFC210 for $200, it prints paper great but the photos are terrible, I just get photos done at the camera shop, prints off digital are cheap as chips for them to do it.

You can pick up a little printer/scanner/copier unit for under $100 these days from all the major chains. The catch is that it's cheaper to buy a new one than it is to buy new ink cartridges.

I'm not sure if this is a reccomendation but I have an Epson stylus cx3500 (I think there now selling cx3600's) which is a flatbed scanner/printer and it produces top quality inkjet photo's. Its a little slow when it comes to standard black & white doccument printing and I've had some issues with it in keeping the heads clean. It doesn't like sitting around doing nothing for weeks and if it does I often have to go through the cleaning cycle to get it to work properly. I used to have a Hewlet Packard printer which make excellent document printers but there photo quality isn't as good as Epson's and HP make some good scanner/printer combo units.

And yeah, its the consumables that realy get your dollars.

Regards, Anthony

I gotta plug HP Printers... I work there

Speaking of printers....

must be about time for another edition from our reporter in chief. Plenty of material flying about at the minute, injuries, titles, teams, comittees.

Well I've decided that it isn't safe to ride anywhere anymore.

I was commuting via the yarra trail bike path last night and almost got into a punch on with some pedestrian.

For once in my life I was doing the right thing, called out 'bike' to let ppl know I was coming, slowed down (thats a first) and kept to the left side of the path. But some guy who stopped in the middle of the path on a bend decided to give me grief by making some passing remark like 'your a w@nker' or something.

Being the helpful guy that I am, I stopped to explain how shared pathways worked.

Lets just say he didn't take my information well and came over and got in my face. He claimed 'Your puffing and worn out, that means I can take you out....' WTF

Thanks for the suggestions & information fellas. One of the guys here at work reckons the Canon Pixma's are not bad either. I have plenty to consider now. Funny how getting a new printer wasn't that urgent until the Mrs needed to use it - and now it's "Priority!

And don't worry pshaw, the actual computer is an HP so you're covered.

classic, peds hate bikes coming past, don't ask me why, seems that anouncing yourself that you are coming along invades their space somehow, even though it's a shared path. Happens everywhere.

I had the good ole big red bus veering in to the shoulder area (i.e. not a full width bike lane) last night. As he went by he kept going further in to it before swerving back out in to the proper lane. He was flying too, no passengers, farken too close for my liking the bastard !!

'You're puffing and worn out, that means I can take you out"

?

"And you'll be puffing out the side of your head after it connects with my u-lock?"

WTF indeed!

I got an HP Photosmart 3310 for Xmas. Best printer I ever used. It's a multipurpose jobby that prints great photos, is wireless, can scan and then print photos from existing photos, negatives and old slides.

If it could look after my manly needs, I'd marry it!

All bus drivers are certifiable, especially the ones who seem sane.

Hmmm. We just got 2 really nice mobile phones for $50 (the Razr and a Nokia 6101) and I'm wondering if it's worth the extra $6/month for hi-speed web access on both...

Completely OT -

https://www.shockabsorber.co.uk/bounceometer/shock.html

I'm wondering if there's some cross-over technology here that could be applied to bikes? *shrug*

(probably NSFW)

Oh, and Patty? Any reason those phones wouldn't work over here? A Razr is 250 bucks plus a 24 month contract!

ALL YOUR RAZRS ARE BELONG TO US!

When we priced the Razr there, it was $550 outright. We went with T-Mobile as they are the only carrier that takes a SIM card. Since they're quad band GSM, there's no reason it wouldn't work in Oz too.

...so what are you saying? That we are all "girly-men"? You don't like our man boobs? We're all gay (not that there's anything wrong with that)?

I can just see it now, in ten years time all the cycling guys will be burning their bras in the name of liberty