Reviews?!

Samsung ToC 24" LCD HDTV
This bad boy is capable of the highest form of high definition available for nearly all media on the marketplace. It has a 5ms response time. It supports both HDMI and DVI inputs. This is nice because most graphic cards use DVI connectors while most Blu-Ray, Playstation, and other peripherals use HDMI. It also has a very elegant design that can be found on all Samsung Touch of Color sets along with their 'touch' power button.

The only real downside to this set is that the contrast ratio is 1000:1. Fortunately I have yet to notice any type of problems at all. I use the monitor for both PC Gaming (A LOT!) and TV/Movies. It seems to display blacks and brights without any issue at all. The color is spot on of course and there are several different presets straight out of the box.

I set a custom preset and could not be happier with it. I have never had to fiddle with the controls and the entire setup seems very intuitive. Un-boxing was trivial and the unit was powered on within minutes. The remote control that comes with it is pretty standard and works well.

My cousin is a stalwart believer in Samsung and has converted me to the evil that is foreign goods. Everything I purchase I attempt to make sure it was made in the US. I say attempt because sometimes it's either not worth it or you can't find it made in the US. The good news about this set? It was made right here in the continental United States in a factory operated by Americans. Ok, I don't feel so bad buying it now.

Model

Brand

SAMSUNG

Model

T240HD

Cabinet Color

Rose-Black

Display

Screen Size

24"

Widescreen

Yes

Recommended Resolution

1920 x 1200

Viewing Angle

160°(H) / 160°(V)

Pixel Pitch

0.27mm

Display Colors

16.7 Million

Brightness

300 cd/m2

Contrast Ratio

DC 10000:1(1000:1)

Response Time

5ms

Horizontal Refresh Rate

30~81kHz

Vertical Refresh Rate

56~75Hz

Panel

a-si TFT/TN

Display Type

WUXGA

Connectivity

Input Video Compatibility

Analog RGB, Digital

Connectors

D-sub, DVI-D, HDMI, Component, DTV Tuner, Optical SPDIF Out

D-Sub

1

DVI

1

HDMI

2

Google Sites

Ok, so I've started a website called Shaggy Dad. I registered the domain of ShaggyDad.com. I also registered a domain for the Blog as well. You may notice that you're now sitting at AwayFromKeyboard.org instead of a blogspot address. Yes, that's because I'm awesome. I must admit that the 'Google Sites' tools seem very limited. It works in somewhat the same manner as the blog control.

Everything is pretty much static and you can't get into the HTML of each page. You edit the HTML within the page but not the page or any static gadgets that they place. For instance I wanted to take the header and do some custom work to it. Instead of just having a feature that says edit source HTML you have to go into control for the header. Then you have the options of using pictures, colors, text, etc to personalize the header. While this is a very strong suite of tools for the average user it is lacking for a super user.

I'm not saying that I'm hot shit by any means. I'm somewhere between lukewarm and spicy. I don't know the advanced php/html tricks but I teach myself as a desire or need for said tricks arises. I taught myself GIMP when I decided to make my own custom BIOS image from scratch. I also taught myself html/php when I started making my own website several years ago.

While I love to toot my horn the point of the above statements is not to point out my strengths but rather to point out the weakness of Google Sites tools. I should be able to do anything I want to my web page. Including fuck it up into something that won't work. That's how we learn. While you're making it easy for a soccer mom to create a web page you're limiting Shaggy Dad from doing everything that he wants. Maybe I haven't spent enough time with the tools yet.

Turd in a Box

So it's that time of year again. I must admit that I deeply enjoy both winter and the holiday season. I live in central Texas. It gets hot, very hot. So the winter is a respite from the glaring heat of any other season. Also, football is coming into full swing. Of course the Dallas Cowboys aren't doing phenomenal but at least we get to enjoy big HDTV sales until the Super Bowl is over.

I would really enjoy having a 50 something inch flat panel LCD HDTV (1080p of course). Internet ready with 3D capability would be nice. Especially if it had at least 2 HDMI (prefer 3-4) and a DVI port. The contrast ratio would have to be healthy and the refresh time would have to be equal to or better than 5ms/120hz.

If you can't tell I would absolutely adore any hardware manufacturer that wanted to send me a test model to Blog about. It's hard to write negative reviews on free models. Turd in a box? Was it free? Yeah?! Then I have to say it was a most excellent turd. I wouldn't be biased, I would definitely report the facts. It's still just a turd. So if one of you 16 people who have viewed the blog work at Samsung and you're in charge of marketing your Touch of Color series then you know exactly who to send your next demo piece to. Only a few days into the blog and I'm already shamelessly reaching out for free schwag. To redeem myself I've attached a photo with relative subject material.

American Investing

I consider myself a pretty dollar savy fellow. I am always seeking new avenues and opportunities to invest small amounts of money into. The problem is that I often desire to cash in my long term investment accounts. I see that it’s worth a few bucks and the consumer switch (I imagine one like an electric chair) slams down with the weight of being a hamburger loving American all of my life. I have yet to cash in on one of my accounts but I’ve come close.

You know things are tough when you start eyeing your 401k like a starved wolf in a chicken coop thinking to yourself “Just X more years and I can have the money…”. Whoever thought of 401k was a genius. He probably worked for the Federal Reserve and was tasked with how to screw the working man out of yet another small portion of his accumulated wealth. He was locked in a room for days until he came up with 401k. It was most ironic because the plan was for life to kill your ass before you could cash it. Pure genius…

On a side note if you get married and die
prematurely your widow/s (yes, ex-wives
have rights to what 401k was invested
while you were married.) get to cash
in on it. So I guess it isn't THAT evil.

Global Warming

Global Warming is a bad thing. With that being said I feel confident that I've informed my readers of the facts. Seriously though, who recycles? I don't know a single person that consistently recycles their trash. I think there are only 2 ways that we're realistically going to save our planet. The first and definitely least popular is with tough new laws put in place by top governments forcing their people and industries to recycle. The other and more favorable but less likely way is for new laws to pass that reward us for recycling.

On the first concept I could see the government adding heavy taxes to public trash disposal and adding non-optional recycle bins to dump locations. Also, there would be civil fines for not separating your trash properly. The later concept would be that you keep up with your glass, plastic and paper pounds per month (via the dumpsite) and are reimbursed via tax breaks. That really doesn't sound like a bad idea. Even if the re-imbursement was miniscule it would still be enough incentive to get me to do it. It goes without mentioning that the homeless would probably have our streets picked clean overnight. Just imagine, “Sir, can you spare some glass?” Why yes, yes I can. They’re practically begging you to throw empty beer bottles at them. Nobody loses, everybody wins.

Richard Garriot

So Richard Garriot won his lawsuit against NCSOFT today. Congratulations, Richard. Too bad EA holds the rights to the cash cow that you reaped your initial success off of (Ultima, for those of you wondering.). Tasty, succulent, un-humoginized frothy cash cow milk... I digress. I know everyone and their dog feels like Ultima 7 was the pinnacle of the series but I can't help but point out how much fun Ultima 8 was. I was introduced to Ultima Underworld, then Ultima 8. After that I played the rest of the franchise. In my opinion Ultima 8 captured the feel of the intellectual property much better than 7. It also seemed to be the slate used for Ultima Online as well.

How do you not love somebody that literally puts himself in his games. Have you ever played an Ultima Game? Lord British is Richard Garriot. Yes, in every game. He also makes (made?) regular appearances in his MMOs. Fuck him for banishing me to the Stygian Abyss in Ultima Underworld though. Fucker...

NPD

I was reading an article on Maximum PC about how the NPD is finally starting to look at digital download sales. This has a definite impact on any type of industry forecasting. Everyone and their retarded hamster uses the NPD numbers to say things like "PC Gaming's sales just don't seem as lucrative as console sales.", which we all know is worthy of flying ninja kicks to the face. Now that they're collecting the digital sales data and reporting more accurately they're showing that the greater evil of capitalism has been successfully posting comparable numbers in both the Console and PC arenas. This makes me happy.

The real question is why did it take so long for them to adapt to current market conditions and to finally begin the foray into recording digital goods/services being purchased?