Your latest purchases, cont.

[drrif]

I have bought the entire back catalogue of every ST series.

[Goliath]

Stew meat. Other groceries.

Pipe cleaners and pipe tobacco, including a tin of something called University Flake, which I had to buy for its name alone.

As it turns out, it's a very nice tobacco. I think I will add it to my regular rotation.

[auntiehill]

A book and a video game for a friend's birthday next month.

God, I LOVE Amazon.

[Admiral Shran]

Some groceries.

[RandyS]

Admiral Shran wrote:

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Some groceries.

Same here.

From Amazon: the latest Star Trek and Star Wars books, the 2012 Star Trek calendar, and all three Star Wars Robot Chicken DVD's. I watched them yesterday. Funny stuff.

Well, some of it anyhow.

[C. Cole-Chakotay]

I've ordered so much from Amazon this month! I know my mail carrier and the UPS and FexEx delivery people are cussing.

[ares93]

Bought a Panasonic Toughbook CF-51 few days ago. I also have a parts machine on the way. And I just bought a BSG Viper patch. Gonna have the logo painted onto my Super Seven after the new body is done.

[Kira's Mom]

I went shopping at the Quantico Base Exchange today (yay for having a dad who is retired Army!), and went a little nuts. I got two Hallmark ornaments (a Barbie and Madame Alexander), some Mozart Kugel (my favorite candy!), and a bottle of Peppermint Mocha Kahlua.

[auntiehill]

Bought some glass coasters at Pier One for Mom and a scarf and glove set for a friend at Dillard's. The Christmas shopping has begun!

[Holdfast]

Holdfast wrote:

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Satanism & Demonology
Devils, Demons & Witchcraft

I read a little around alchemy this time last year, and a bit of Aquinas later on, so figured I may as well fill in the gaps. These concepts make for some interesting psychological motifs, which is what interests me about them. The first book sounds like a good introductory overview and the second should have lots of interesting artwork.

Quick book review: the second book does indeed have some great pictures, especially the chapters on the Danse Macabre and the fall of lucifer.

The first book I haven't quite got round to reading more than the first chapter of yet, but so far, so good. Or should that be, so far, so bad...

Holdfast wrote:

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I've ordered a new Sony Vaio to replace the current one.... Intel Core i7-2670QM 2.2GHz, 8GB 1333MHz DDR3-SDRAM, 16.4" 1920x1080 screen, NVIDIA GeForce GT540M 2GB...

Got this yesterday, and have been busy configuring it and transferring files. It's now fully up & running and it's nice to have something speedy again. My last computer was Windows XP, so I'm finally having to get used to Windows 7. It's actually pretty cool in lots of little ways that make life easy (the right-click context menus especially seem even more useful than normal), but it will take a bit of adjustment to fully adapt.

One general gripe: why do computers get shipped with such god-awful colour calibration. The gamma is jacked to ridiculous levels, and the colour is so cold you can actually see a blue/purple shift. I think the backlight is actually partly responsible for that but it's no excuse. I wish I had an objective hardware calibrator, because futzing around with the subjective software calibration isn't ideal. Still, I've more or less fixed it now. I do like the automatic brightness adjustment through the ambient light sensor though; very useful and avoids eye strain.

[ares93]

You're luckly you domt have a transreflective screen. Both my school laptop and my older toughbook has it. Everything blue becomes green. Gray becomes white. Its uttery rubbish. But you can turn of the backlight and still see everything on the screen.

[LitmusDragon]

Panasonic VIERA TC-P60ST30 60-Inch 1080p 600 Hz 3D Plasma HDTV

I recently inherited some money from an annuity I'd been waiting on for years and made two big purchases: some expensive new camera equipment, and this TV. Amazon has a really great deal on it this weekend. From what I've read there is very little difference in picture quality between this and the more expensive model, the GT30.

This TV is replacing a Westinghouse 42" 720p LCD television. I imagine the difference in picture quality will be huge. I have had the new TV since Tuesday but not watched it yet because I'm doing the responsible thing and running break-in slides for the first 100 hours to evenly age the phospors and help prevent burn-in.

[Holdfast]

ares93 wrote:

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You're luckly you domt have a transreflective screen. Both my school laptop and my older toughbook has it. Everything blue becomes green. Gray becomes white. Its uttery rubbish. But you can turn of the backlight and still see everything on the screen.

That sounds... awful.

LitmusDragon wrote:

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Panasonic VIERA TC-P60ST30 60-Inch 1080p 600 Hz 3D Plasma HDTV

I recently inherited some money from an annuity I'd been waiting on for years and made two big purchases: some expensive new camera equipment, and this TV. Amazon has a really great deal on it this weekend. From what I've read there is very little difference in picture quality between this and the more expensive model, the GT30.

This TV is replacing a Westinghouse 42" 720p LCD television. I imagine the difference in picture quality will be huge. I have had the new TV since Tuesday but not watched it yet because I'm doing the responsible thing and running break-in slides for the first 100 hours to evenly age the phospors and help prevent burn-in.

60" is massive. You must have a very big living room! I think the most I'd want would be around 48"-ish. My nearly 8+yr old Sony 36" CRT is developing a screen flicker I can't fix... I wonder if it needs professional degaussing... I doubt there are any TV repairmen left these days, so if it gets any worse, I may just bite the bullet can get a new TV instead. Is plasma still the top technology? I heard that LED-backlit LCD was the current fave.

When are we likely to get cost-effective big OLEDs?

[ed629]

60 INCH HD TV!!!! Yeah baby!!!!!!

[LitmusDragon]

Holdfast wrote:

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60" is massive. You must have a very big living room! I think the most I'd want would be around 48"-ish. My nearly 8+yr old Sony 36" CRT is developing a screen flicker I can't fix... I wonder if it needs professional degaussing... I doubt there are any TV repairmen left these days, so if it gets any worse, I may just bite the bullet can get a new TV instead. Is plasma still the top technology? I heard that LED-backlit LCD was the current fave.

I don't think the difference is all that huge anymore. Most would say that Plasmas have better blacks, but it depends on who you ask. I think for a price point though the particular model of Panasonic I got is one of the better bargains in a TV of that size.

The TV itself IS huge. The new TV looks like it could eat my old television. Yet it only weighs 20 pounds more than the old one. I guess that's the difference in 3 years of technology and plasma versus cheap LCD which tends to be bulkier (my 42" was only $400 when I bought it new 3 years ago!).

ed629 wrote:

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60 INCH HD TV!!!! Yeah baby!!!!!!