Q. How effective is the "error correction" used in modern-day disc technology? Beyond the large scratches that sometimes ruin my enjoyment of a DVD, do smaller scratches have a cumulative effect on what I see that might be more subtle?
Recently I sat down with Captain Jean-Luc Picard, in the guise of actor Patrick Stewart. He was out of uniform that morning because we were in a roundtable discussion about X-Men: The Last Stand.
How does it feel to have the two Sirius channels that you created - Underground Garage (Channel 25) and Outlaw Country (Channel 36) - broadcasting 24/7? I feel like we made history already, you know? It's not easy to create a new format in radio, and I created two.
FULLY ARMED That sweet flat-panel TV you just bought demands to be mounted on a wall. Problem: The spot you've set aside for it has you seeing mostly glare. Don't give up and get a floor stand - get K2's X-Arm mount.
NET WORTHY Can the Internet improve your remote control? Hey, it worked for Harmony. Now Acoustic Research is taking the idea a step further by including Wi-Fi in its ARR2470 Wi-Q remote to keep it constantly connected to the Net.
ROUND SOUND Don't think of the radial as an iPod speaker dock - it's more befitting to call it an iPod stage, encircling the player with curved 60-watt speakers to bust out your tunes, but keeping the iPod front and center to remind everyone who's really the star of the show.
FROM DISK TO DISC It'll be pretty easy to get on the good side of any TV fan if you have Polaroid's DRM-2001G video recorder. Not only will it save TV shows to its 80-GB hard disk (up to 102 hours in the lowest-quality mode), but you can burn your recordings to DVD whenever you please.
So no one has to miss Lost as long as you're in command.
COLOR ME RAD Six primary colors? That can't be right, yet Mitsubishi insists on calling its state-of-the-art TV color control the 6-Primary Color System, since it creates yellow, cyan, and magenta directly, rather than by mixing red, green, and blue. The upshot: a wider range of richer, more vibrant colors.
