Things Smackie Thinks You Need to Know...

i wrote:
samsung galaxy sfive . . . out april eleventh.  discuss.  i just got my sfour in november, and love it, but like most phones nowadays, i use, roughly, ten percent of what the bad boy can do.  discuss, part two.

What's the deal with the new Verizon pricing?  I need to add two cell phones to my plan, and I'm wondering if I should do it before the pricing takes effect, or wait until after.

what, an odd, backtrack.

The Economist was Sold Today

Pearson, the owner of the Financial Times, which has had a non-controlling 50% stake in us since 1928, is selling. Three-fifths of those shares will go to an existing shareholder?Exor, the holding company of the Agnelli family. The rest will be bought back by our parent company, The Economist Group.

Economist Group to buy 5.04m ordinary shares from Pearson for £182m
Exor to acquire all of Pearson?s 1.26m ?B? shares and 6.3m ordinary shares for £287m
Amendments to the Group?s articles being proposed to secure editorial and company independence for the future
Existing shareholder stakes will increase by 25%, repurchased shares to be held in treasury
The purchase will be part-funded by the sale of the Economist Complex

Ferrari and the Economist under common ownership.  All is right with the world today.

vansmack wrote:
Can we talk about pornhub for minute?  Of course we can, it's my thread.

Well it turns out that the nice clerk was wrong.  Pornhub is only taking the HD porn behind the subscription plan. 

Anyhow, so I'm not too alarmed about pornhub's new paywall, but I think there's too much free porn to make a worthwhile and profitable Netflix like experience for porn.   

their new safe for work advertising campaign is chuckle worthy

that is the pornhub premium of posts

for ten dollars a month, those new ads better blow me.

Perhaps the only vertical video I've ever liked:

https://vimeo.com/135475344

thoughts on curved vs. flat screen?

LED screens have poor viewing angles.  Curved screens were really meant to combat this, but mostly its a gimmick.  I wouldn't consider getting a curved screen if you generally have a normal setup and sit in front of your screen.

Yada wrote:
thoughts on curved vs. flat screen?

I'm fairly neutral on the issue.  I don't see the advantage in the TV size I have (50-55 inches) but could see it at, say, 70 inches.

Large crowds struggle with them as the viewing angles are narrow, but if you're the one guy sitting dead center I can see the feeling of being "wrapped in" to what you're watching.

I don't think the technology justifies the price increase, but they do look cool as hell.  I also hear that if you're a 3D person, it's the only way to go - I, however, am not a 3D person. 

Hackers Post some of the Ashley Madison Data

Just in case your name is on the list….

I'm so hyped to get my new TV delivered on Saturday!

I worked an absolute steal by getting them to price match a sketchy online price at 859.99, then using Jaded's 10% mover's coupon (thanks!), then pre-buying the total in Best Buy gift cards from Cardpool.com at 94 cents on the dollar. Actual financial layout with tax $767.58. I've never basked in being cheap before. It feels weird.

I might need soundsystem advice, Smackie, I went small and came in way under budget.

Here's the calibration settings used by rtings for their review:

http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-brand/vizio/m-series-2015/settings

jaded wrote:
Here's the calibration settings used by rtings for their review:

http://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-brand/vizio/m-series-2015/settings

I have no idea what that means! But thanks!

Good choice.  I know the excited feeling you're experiencing…

I actually have an Insignia 6.1 channel receiver that I'm happy to donate to you - you would just cover shipping.  No HDMI ports on it, but coaxial digital and TOSLINK digital ports so it works well with the Samsung TV's, which are loaded with HDMI ports.

I also am selling a set of Energy RC Micro speakers (2 front, 2 rear, 1 center + powered subwoofer). I LOVE LOVE LOVE these little speakers, but sadly have been told that I cannot use them in our new house (no holes, no wires).  I leveraged that strong opinion for the SONOS upgrade, but will still miss these guys.     

If you're interested, let me know.

Otherwise, you've got some decisions to make based mostly on how you consume your music.  Are you mostly digital now?  What other components do you need to play your collection?  HOw do you consume video?  I'll need to know this info before offering suggestions.

Hmm. Well, I have both a TV room and a parlor and the parlor is where I generally listen to music, it's where I keep my CDs and vinyl.

In my TV room, on the rare occasions I listen to music, I have my entire collection digitized and play them thru the TiVo which has a music app, through my TV's speakers currently. (I know, you're clutching your pearls.) Ideally, I would like to be able to play actual CDs and vinyl in the TV room as well through a soundsystem. I would like my TV/blu-ray to feed into the soundsystem as well. It is a very oddly shaped room and I cannot drill so ideally wireless. This does not need to be anywhere close to a top of the line setup, as I am surviving on TV speakers currently.

EDIT: To clarify, I'm only interested in updating the TV room. The parlor's sound setup is already great.

vansmack wrote:
I actually have an Insignia 6.1 channel receiver that I'm happy to donate to you - you would just cover shipping.  No HDMI ports on it, but coaxial digital and TOSLINK digital ports so it works well with the Samsung TV's, which are loaded with HDMI ports.

I… probably want this? I'm not clear how I could get my TV and blu-ray to play through it sans HDMI connections, though.

Julian, wrote:
I… probably want this? I'm not clear how I could get my TV and blu-ray to play through it sans HDMI connections, though.

Do you have a TV in the parlor as well?

vansmack wrote:

Julian, wrote:
I… probably want this? I'm not clear how I could get my TV and blu-ray to play through it sans HDMI connections, though.

Do you have a TV in the parlor as well?

No, the parlor is a tv-free sitting room. I have a TV in my bedroom and guestroom but not trying to hook them into any speaker systems.

Julian, wrote:
EDIT: To clarify, I'm only interested in updating the TV room. The parlor's sound setup is already great.

You have a receiver in there?  That would make it a lot easier.