Y2HH

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Nov 26, 2013 -> 08:47 AM) I'll have to look into the Samsung, I was checking out their LED TVs and some Panasonic plasmas last night. I care about picture quality, not any of the smart TV stuff or 3D. I wish someone would make a high-end display with the extra stuff stripped out at a lower price-point. I hoping Fry's has some plasmas on display that I can go and check out in person before deciding. Here: http://www.frys.com/product/7024871?site=s...CH:MAIN_RSLT_PG 60" Plasma, NO smart features (use your AppleTV/Ruku/Chromecast to make it truly smart in comparison to the garbage "smart" tv's include). Oh, it's only 797$. And it's a really good tv.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 06:01 PM) i don't think those two things are on anywhere near the same level. but hey, the whole point of this wasn't social security, but whether I'm a terrible blight on society for accepting an health insurance subsidy that the government is offering me. clearly I have not argued my case well enough. You are a terrible blight on society, not because you took a health insurance subsidy, but because I said so.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 08:03 PM) I think everyone in America agrees on this, yet somehow we don't act on it with our votes and it's pretty sad. You guys should watch the TV show Continuum on Netflix (Canadian show), but its premise is exactly what you described and where it all leads 60 years from now. Awesome show. But yes, I'm a Democrat, and they're Democrats, so in that regard it is a "we" - but I know how you get about semantics When I vote, I actually DO act on it with my vote. If I think a democratic candidate deserves the job, especially when this decision can be made on past performance, I'll vote for them, same goes for I's and R's. But if you've shown that you're going to vote for corporate interests, or other such nonsense, I will not vote them back into office. Other people do, though ... which is exactly how this 9% approval rating congress will get mostly re-elected with relative ease.

Plasmas run at native 600hz without tricks or gimmicks like frame interpolation. That's why plasmas can keep up with fast moving sports, etc, much better than LCD's can. Note, an LED tv is a LCD that's backlit by LED light, nothing more. These TV's use tricks like doubling refresh rates or adding frames to smooth out motion. I do NOT like that gimmick crap when watching movies on LED/LCD tv's, it makes everything look fake to me. I have 2 plasmas in my house, I play video games on them, leave them on all the time, etc., and there are no permanent screen burn issues, and there haven't been for years. There are built in protections like pixel shifting and screen dimming these days that prevent it...and while they're not as efficient as their LED counterparts in the electricity department, they're usually 1/3 to 1/2 the cost up front and their energy consumption has come WAY down over the years. Plasmas are very heavy, however, and they're made of glass, which can cause glare if you put it in a brightly lit room. That said, I have one in a brightly lit room and have no issues, the picture is bright in daylight or darkness, so there's that. I like Plasmas because you can get a very high quality Samsung plasma (new) for under 950$ at 60".

QUOTE (Reddy @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 04:30 PM) that's exactly my point. So then stop worrying about it.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 02:18 PM) And in 2033 I'll be 47. Probably not quite to retirement age I'd imagine. So then you don't have to worry about it for a long time.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 11:23 AM) And I'm just supposed to hope and pray it exists 40 years from now and NOT take a health care credit because of that? That's a hell of a lot of faith to put in our clearly dysfunctional government. I have a better idea. Take the heath care credit, AND collect SS when the time comes.

QUOTE (Iwritecode @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 11:57 AM) For being in the IT industry, I know embarrassingly little about tech stuff. My daughter has a cheap little $20 MP3 player that she uses constantly. A few months ago a friend got an Ipod touch and she used that a few times and had a blast with it. Mostly recording videos and going online when she could find a wi-fi connection. We looked at getting her one but the price deterred us a little. We were thinking about getting an older used one instead. In last week’s HH Gregg ad I saw a 7” Lenovo tablet for $99. That should pretty much do the same thing as an Ipod touch right? Although it would be a bit bigger. If she primarily uses it as a camera/music player, a tablet (even a small tablet) is too big for that soft of use. At least, it is IMO. But yes, technically, it can do all those same things as an iPod, but so can a desktop sized PC for that matter...but that's against the grain of it's actual use. When it comes to these phones/tablets/pods, I'd get her whatever she is going to primarily use it for (within affordability).

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 10:24 AM) where do you get the idea of #1? I mean, I'd like to see SS shored up too, and stop the practice of IOU's against it... but it will be solvent for a few more decades even without changes, and much longer with even small tweaks. And I don't believe there is any real chance they let it fail. It's a popular thing to say, but I agree with you. Social Security is one of the most stable government programs there is, but if you listen to what people say or regurgitate what you've heard spread through the media, it's on the verge of collapse and you won't get it anyway! If you're paying in SS now, there is a very very very good chance you will get SS benefits later in life. Is there a chance this won't happen? Yes. But there is a chance you'll win the lottery, too.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 25, 2013 -> 09:35 AM) After researching my original plan of having a monster 2 TB base machine and then an advanced tablet to go around with... it is just too expensive and complicated to pull off. I won't bother downloading all my movies at this time. Instead, going to just get a new laptop, and a cradle/dock for it to live in when it is on the desk (the dock is key, so I don't have to re-plug power, two monitor cables, USB, etc. every time). Looking for a 1 TB (or even slightly less) laptop, something nice and light with a 15" screen or so (a little smaller even is fine), easy to get around, that responds quickly to being docked, and a blue-ray drive is a must. Any advice from people on laptop brands? I won't buy an HP again, period. Looked so far at Dell, Lenovo, Asus. Any advice on Windows 7 versus 8? Thanks! Can't give you advice on what kind of laptop to buy, be it Dell, Asus, Lenovo, etc...as depending on exactly which specification you go with, you may or may not like one model over another, and you may find others that recommend one over the other, but there will never be a standout opinion as to why one is better than the others. This is like Ford vs Chrysler vs VW, etc...they all have good models and bad, depending on which you choose...and even then, some people love their bad models. I'd simply say a few factors you should keep an eye on when it comes to laptops: battery life, weight, warranty, memory expandability, and screen resolution. Most modern processor/gfx specs will go hand in hand with the resolution your laptop can handle. Higher resolutions require better cpu/gfx hardware by proxy. As for Windows 7 vs 8, it's a daunting and sometimes confusing change, even for technically savvy people like myself. Windows 8.1 is slick, and looks very modern, not to mention it's fast and visually appealing, but say goodbye to everything you know about how previous versions of windows worked. The start bar, even in 8.1 is NOT the same as your old start bar. You can hack one back on, but if that's your goal, just use 7 instead of trying to work against how 8 was designed to work. A lot of things are not where they once were, and you will have to find them all over again. That said, most of what you need configured is rather simple to get going. IMO, 8.1 is STILL a work in progress. For example, it has 2 control panels, it shouldn't. They need to finish unifying everything. BUT, it is a very nice OS, and I'd recommending moving to it simply to stay current, even if it will throw you a few curveballs at first.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 23, 2013 -> 11:20 AM) So your solution is to get rid of speeding laws? Because quite literally that's what you're saying. You know darn well I agree with you, but that's not a solution, that's a temper tantrum. That's taking your toys and going home. That's NOT what I said in ANY regard. I'm saying if I was caught doing that, I'd 1) get my license suspended, 2) go to jail, 3) pay fines into the thousands on top of 1 and 2. This is what prevents us from doing this. If the fine was a few pennies, everyone would speed, all the time. What I'm saying is you don't take a mega corporation and slap them on the wrist for blatantly ignoring laws. You fine them hundreds of millions and let them know whats what, while deterring other mega corporations from trying something similar.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 23, 2013 -> 11:11 AM) So the answer should be an empty chair? This one isn't a problem with the legal system and it's not a good reason to stop having judges. It's a reason to fix the law at the place the law is written, Congress. Which of course...would require getting a bill through the Senate. The Senate where a 60 vote majority will be required, where decent laws go to die. I'd rather the chair be empty so long as the person that's going to fill it is going to do nothing but protect corporations over the people. And by and large, that's exactly what they've been doing. I mean, look at the recent judgement against Google for illegally spying on people...what was it, a 12 million dollar "record" fine? That's like me doing 150mph in a 30mph zone, and getting a ticket for 16 cents. Yea, that'll show me. ...MEANWHILE, these same systems in place fined a single mother on welfare millions of dollars for sharing some songs. I mean, after all, corporations lost money because of that! While this was eventually reduced to 220k or something, it's still such a steep fine she will never be able to pay it back. Meanwhile, we fine Google what they probably make in 3 hours time.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 23, 2013 -> 10:56 AM) At the very least, you didn't spell out at all in that post why it's a good thing that we don't have enough judges to handle the cases in front of them. That's legitimately the problem here, the judiciary is disturbingly vacant. These are the same judges that allow stuff like incredibly generalized software patents and patent trolling to occur...because the corporate masters that control the politicians have them appointed in the first place. Do we REALLY want more of these? Until I start seeing some sanity in our judiciary, I'm about done adding more of them to the system. They're so busy protecting the likes of Verizon and AT&T, that a 2 gig data package costs 60+$ a month, which isn't enough to cover a single f***ing Netflix HD movie. I'm pretty much done with our entire government, and judiciary, because it's clear who they're writing laws for and who they're protecting in the courts, and it sure as hell isn't 'we the people'.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Nov 23, 2013 -> 08:26 AM) Guess what? Democrats historically haven't been douchebags with the filibuster the way the GOP has under this president. I'm sure you've seen the numbers, but almost half of all nominees filibustered in the history of our country have come in the Obama administration. We blocked 7 Bush appointments. The GOP blocked 30 Obama appointments in the first term alone. Something had to be done, and frankly I don't see this biting us in the ass in the way you imagine for exactly that reason. "WE" didn't block anything. You still seem to think you're part of that "we", and you aren't. They're rich, and part of a club you and I never will be invited too, whether there is an R or a D next to their name. I assure you, anything they do, they do it for themselves first and foremost to assure re-election, mostly by request of the corporations that own them...and maybe way down the line, ranking in at 100 or so in list of importance, come we the people. I'm saying you and others hailing it as something great, that a day will come that you look back and regret it occurred. I don't know when or how, but a loophole or otherwise will be found using a similar procedure, and this will get expanded in scope/power, and the ruling party will essentially be in absolute power ... and while I do not like a two party system, I really really really don't like a one party system, even if it's only in place for a few years at a time. I prefer they do nothing in Washington and continue blocking each other from getting anything major done, because it's clear they've all been bought and sold, and they aren't here for us anymore. The government has become the master ... while they're supposed to be the servant. A congress with a single digit approval rating should get replaced, but they won't get replaced...they'll mostly get re-elected (probably 90+% of them will win reelection despite this approval rating), because they have the money to do so...given to them by the corporations that put them there in the first place. The constitution was written -- very specifically -- to protect the people from the government, not the other way around.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Nov 22, 2013 -> 04:11 PM) Mods do you work if this thread is redundant. So I guess I thought I was being slick when a tragedy occurred with my credit score. I had 3 credit cards before of varying limits. I decided to tell capital one to kick the can down the road because they were charging me annual fees for their cards. I in tune raised the limit of my freebie credit card to the combined of the 3 plus or minus 1K or so. Apparently, that's a colossal no no. My score took a huge hit as a result. I'm shocked and can't believe this is happening. I tried to re-fi my student loans recently and was denied do this. Why in the world is the credit system so f***ed up like this? Credit scores fluctuate for a number of reasons, such as simple credit checks, late payment of loans, etc. Usually, opening and closing of cards and credit checks will only give you a temporary credit score hit, and it will revert back rather quickly.

QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 22, 2013 -> 02:20 PM) Yeah, it shows the resolution each time he changes a channel so he should be able to tell the difference. I made an edit to that post -- when he plugs directly into the TV, he has to select that input, it's probably called something like AV1.

QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 22, 2013 -> 02:18 PM) He also has a AV receiver. I'll tell him to try that out, with the cable straight into the TV. He still has to make sure the channels swap resolutions. Some broadcast in 1080i, some in 720p, he has to make sure he switches between two that actually change it.\ Oh, and he will have to change to that input to see it (though you/he probably know this), it's most likely called AV1.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Nov 22, 2013 -> 02:10 PM) Guns did none of those things. People did them. Guns dont kill people, people kill people. Guns dont save people, people save people. You dont need a gun to be a hero, you dont need a gun to fight Nazis or slave owners. The pen is mightier than the sword. If you were transported back to WW2 and forced to face Nazi's without a gun, I'm pretty sure you'd be dead.

QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 22, 2013 -> 02:07 PM) Here's a question for the TV experts around here. My dad got himself a TV for Christmas last year...I don't remember all the details short of it being a Vizio 46" LCD/LED Smart TV. Anyway, he's gotten very frustrated with one particular thing is does. When changing channels and the picture format of the new channel is different from the former (usually switching between 720p and 1080i), the lag time before it renders a picture is quite long. I'm not sure what causes this -- they're looking for another TV for a different room and their only strategy so far is to avoid Vizio, which may or may not be the thing to do. I have no idea how to advise them to look for a TV that is less likely to be slow like that when changing channels. This could potentially be caused by the TV, *OR* the cable box plugged into the TV, I assume via HDMI? It's also possible they are routing through a stereo receiver, which could ALSO be the cause for delay when the signals switch from one resolution to another. Do they have cable or OTA channels they can switch to see if the rendering takes just as long? That would remove the cable/dtv receiver from the loop. If he has cable (and not directv), he could plug the cable connect directly into his TV and he will still receive a few channels in which he can test to see if the delay is still present. Or, it's possible it is just the TV. I always advise people to go with Sharp or Samsung when it comes to TVs.

None of this matters. Eventually, everything leads to cancer, just check WebMD if you don't believe me.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 22, 2013 -> 01:24 PM) If you want to do this, the use of guns also killed a couple million of the murdered jews of Europe, massacred people in the balkans, killed millions in places like Cambodia, and took out John Kennedy for good measure. They've done a whole host of bad things also. So did knives and swords in Rome.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Nov 22, 2013 -> 11:05 AM) At least you understand my sense of humor.

QUOTE (Reddy @ Nov 22, 2013 -> 10:51 AM) It wasn't meant to be a jab at blue collar jobs or others that do them. Obviously it's important that people do these jobs and yes - there is nothing wrong with being a blue collar worker. (I feel like a politician "clarifying" my position. haha) It was just meant to illustrate the martyrdom he tries to achieve and that I described in my response to pettie. I personally find it ironic that a truck driver could be so holier-than-thou about another person's chosen profession, but I also understand how that comes off as me - in turn - feeling that same superiority. So I get where you're coming from. My bad. I'll play the media to your politician: Bill O'Reilly: Nice filibuster there, Reddy. What you should have done was simply disagree with him about your chosen lifestyle, versus being insulted that a truck driver -- of all people -- has the gall to be insulted. Whether he's a janitor or a doctor shouldn't come into play. Pinhead.

QUOTE (pettie4sox @ Nov 22, 2013 -> 10:39 AM) You have been going to war with Duke a long time from the ferocity of both of your posts. You know what Duke is at this point as he has made it perfectly clear that he has been consistent in his stances. I understand your sentiment but I just don't think that last jab was necessary. Obviously, that's just my opinion. Forced to agree with that opinion. Reddy was making a solid point until he took that swipe, it made it impossible for me to remember or pay attention to the rest of what he said.

QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 22, 2013 -> 10:16 AM) If anyone wants to understand the difference between Google and Apple, this is it. Apple is an electronics company. They make profit on the phones, tablets, computers they sell. Google is a services company - they are willing to break even or worse on things like the Nexus devices just to ensure that you use their services. There are going to be differences for the end user based on these things, of course, with pros and cons for each. Y2HH often talks about the Apple ecosystem, which is one of the pros of sticking with Apple across platforms. Google wants to make the Google "ecosystem" the default, where Apple will always make theirs more exclusive so that they can have more control of the development of their services Google is not a pure services company, it's actually an advertising company disguised as a services company, that uses said services to advertise. It's their bread and butter, and it's where almost all of their profit is generated. Google is unlike any other company I've ever seen, because when dealing with Google, you are not just a consumer of their services, you are, ultimately, their actual product. And that's where I begin to enter a grey area with Google that I don't like very much. There are trade offs to both. Google, in exchange for your information, habits, likes and dislikes, gives their goods/services away at cost or nearly free of charge in order to tailor advertising for 3rd parties strictly for you. This allows them to charge more for advertising to you.