I’m going to keep the site as a hobby blog for now, but I wanted to streamline the look, feel and utility of the blog. As I’ve said before, I originally built this website as a personal tool with which to catalogue and sort my various woodworking projects, recipes, travels, etc. You know, automation and all that. I think this new design manages to give me the cleaner feel I’ve been looking for while improving functionality.

Here’s the email. I can’t be the only person asking this question, can I?

Dear Editors: Technology is finally getting to the point where I can merge my PC/TV/DVD/etc… and I want to take the right steps to build a quality home theater/computer for the least expense possible.

My Current Situation: I’m an avid Netflix user and have Charter digital cable with DVR. I currently have a Dell laptop through work and I’m planning to buy my wife a netbook to use around the house. Our old Dell tower (running XP) is filled to the brim with music and pictures. I have a Droid phone and my wife has an iPod touch, so we rarely use the home computer for ad hoc internet browsing anymore. It’s basically a digital filing cabinet at this point.

My Future Situation: My wife told me I can buy a HD flat screen TV if I lose some weight (I’m very susceptible to bribery), and I expect to buy one before this fall. My old DVD player is on the fritz, so It’s time for me to get a new DVD player too. Also, I’m putting off buying a new computer or extra hard drive until I know what role it’ll play in the new entertainment center. My A/V and surround sound system still work fine.

My Question: I’m planning to move all of our electronics to a credenza (which I’ll build) in the den/family room. What combination of gadgets do I need to buy to have a fully functional home entertainment center? On my new TV, I want to be able to stream Netflix movies, watch HULU videos, shop for media and products on Amazon, browse through my digital music library, and do work on Microsoft Office files if I have to. Naturally, I want it all networked with my other devices and I want all my data backed up on a regular basis. I’m not quite ready to give up cable for purely online media, so I’m holding onto my cable connection for the time being. But that might change when more sports are available online. What should I do?

Obviously, we’ll need to buy a blu-ray player that also streams Netflix videos. We’ll also need a wireless keyboard and mouse to use in the den. For the rest, a friend recommended attaching a cheap Acer netbook and external hard drive to my new TV to provide an internet connection, operating system and storage for all of our pictures/videos/music. Not to sound too critical, but that seems like a ‘duct-tape solution’ to me. The little netbook would be open and running 24 hours a day, emitting light from inside the credenza and heating up all the other electronics.

Is there a cheap tower I can buy that’ll have Microsoft 7 (and hopefully Microsoft Office) already installed on it? Also, despite the iPod, we’re PC users. I’ll change my OS if I have to, but that’s an awfully small corner to paint ourselves into if you ask me. Anybody have any tips? I’m not looking for perfection. I’m looking for a cheap and effective solution.

It runs Google’s second-generation Android operating system and is on the Verizon network. This thing is pretty cool. It has a 5 megapixel camera with a flash, turn-by-turn navigation and a slide-out qwerty keyboard:

Of course, it has two virtual keyboards as well, but the slide out one comes in handy when you have to type something with lots of letters, numbers and symbols, like a complicated login/password. This thing also does all the other things smart phones are supposed to do, and you can get an app for practically anything else. It has three (or more) home pages to keep your screen neat and tidy, an easy to navigate app tray, and Google’s voice recognition software really makes this thing seem futuristic. The most important aspect of the phone is that everything is customizable. Everything.

One thing I’ve noticed since getting the phone is how insecure iphone users are when it comes to their gadgets. You say you have the new droid and they immediately snap, “it’s still not as good as an iphone!” Really? Why are they so invested in the public perception of a cell phone? Who really cares, other than the self-identifying Apple defenders (apologists?). It goes beyond brand loyalty. It’s a form of tribalism, really, and it’s a little pathetic. There are some things the droid does better than the iphone. There are some things the iphone does better than the droid. Let it go, people.

But if I have to dip my toe in the Google vs. Apple pool, I’ll predict one thing… with Android being spread across multiple platforms and networks, and the iphone being sequestered on the relatively unreliable AT&T network, Apple’s stock will start dropping in the next couple of years — both figuratively and literally. That’s already happened to Garmin’s stock price after Google’s free Map Navigation app hit the market. And with Android’s open-source philosophy and unfiltered, programmer-friendly app market, you can expect Android to start winning the “cool feature” contest within the next couple of years.

It was a good little Kodak, and it’s features were innovative when it was made. Unfortunately, those days are long gone.

We were torn between the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290 and the Canon PowerShot SD780IS. The Sony has a few more features (that I’ll probably never use) and a 5x zoom. The Canon only has a 3x zoom, but has most of the features I value. Both have the image stabilizing feature that I’m most interested in, and both have around 12 megepixels. That, in my opinion, makes the zoom discrepancy negligible. I almost never zoom in on anything with the camera. I just don’t think about it. Instead, I use Picasa to edit my pictures, and I often blow up a small portion of the image. The Sony had a larger view screen, but the Canon was smaller and lighter. Both seemed like good choices and my wife was leaning toward the Sony. But since buying the Sony meant all of our memory cards would become obsolete and we’d have to pony up about $40 for a new card, we finally settled on the Canon PowerShot:

I’ll be sure to relate our experience with the new camera.

By the way, I had to take this picture with the old camera. You can really tell difference between the quality of the two pictures in this post, can’t you? And this was one of the better pictures the Kodak has taken in a while. Maybe it saw the end coming and was pleading for a little more life. Kind of like this.

I inherited this classic phone from my Grandmother. If you look closely, you’ll see it still has her old typewritten number on the dial:

We have a couple of cordless phones in the house, but we keep the ringers turned off so that the only sound comes from the bell in this phone. It’s fun to watch adults play with the dial like it’s a toy. I guess someday, when we go completely cellular, we’ll have to retire this old thing. But for now we enjoy making and taking calls the old fashioned way.