Technology Update
It's been a good couple of months for me in terms of acquisition of new toys. The most significant of these is that I got myself a Dell 2005 FPW LCD display. It's been a very long time since I've had a display with more than 1280 pixels horizontal resolution, and the first wide aspect monitor I've owned. My impression after a week of use is nothing short of love. I have it hooked up to my PowerBook via DVI, and to my XBox via (yes, I know this is ghetto) composite. The controls are easy to use, and the display is sharp and bright. Colors are pretty good, although not quite as vivid as on the Apple Cinema Displays at twice the price. This is one of those purchases that has actually changed the way I use my computer. I gotta say, nothing beats the dual-screen action. I find myself using the Dell as my primary workspace, and the 1024x768 built-in panel on the PowerBook as a "status" screen, where I keep my mail reader, iTunes, chat client, etc. I just can't believe I waited this long to get this thing... though the $559 price tag was the real catalyst. I don't even notice the single dead subpixel, fortunately.
With the newfangled monitor and the XBox, it was time to upgrade the audio in my bedroom. I didn't want to spend a ton of money, though, so I sucked it up and went with one of those "multimedia" speaker sets that I pooh-poohed until recently. I picked up the Klipsch GMX A-2.1 speaker set a couple of days ago. The sound quality is good, for what it is. I mean, my high-brow audiophile ears can clearly pick up all the deficiencies, but for general computing, light movie watching, casual music, and light gaming purposes, they are pretty darn good. I picked these guys instead of the JBL Soundsticks because they sound better, just slightly. Yes, you sacrifice a ton in terms of visual aesthetics, and it was almost enough to make me go the other way, in the end I went with these because of the $149 price tag, compared to the $199 for the Soundsticks. Curiously, JBL's website lists the Soundsticks for $169, but the Apple Store (web and brick versions) has 'em for $199. Oh well, I would have gone with them for $169.
This, of course, brings us back to the Airport Express. That little box is just amazing. For a while I was just using it to extend my wireless network and for AirTunes. I now have it hooked up to my printer so I can print to it wirelessly from any machine on my network. And, get this: I am also using it to get my XBox on my wireless network! Yes, an undocumented feature of this amazing little device is that it can act as an ethernet to wireless bridge if it is operating as a remote base station in a WDS network. It was literally plug and play with the XBox: I just hooked up the ethernet port and off it went. So it makes me feel pretty good about myself that I'm using the full capability of the Airport Express: WDS remote base station, print server, AirTunes, and ethernet to wireless bridge. Sweet.
Two purchases I'm seriously considering in the near future: Digital SLR camera and digital piano. Note that both of these are attempts to get back to arts that I've been neglecting for a while. I broke out my old Nikon N6006 recently and shot a couple of rolls of film; I enjoyed myself so thoroughly that moving that part of my life into the digital age is inevitable. Also, on a recent visit to my parents' house, I sat down at the piano for an extended amount of time, and even though I didn't have any of the music anymore, I practice some of the old songs that I used to know how to play. Again, very enjoyable, and I felt it stirred a yearning I've been feeling since I started listening to classical music again.
I'll keep you posted on the developments as they arise...