OTHER TECH

But the once-ridiculed category has re-emerged, surprisingly pumped and ready to kick sand in the face of that conventional wisdom.

Photo illustration by Eric Yang Lowry photo by John Skalicky When George Lucas needed someone to restore the first three Star Wars films to their original glory for DVD, he turned to digital pioneer John Lowry. And when the James Bond film legacy needed to be rescued from the ravages of time, the studios called on Lowry as the best man for the job.

In the whole, NBC's high-definition coverage of the Athens Olympics made for pretty dismal TV. The same segments repeated ad nauseam only served to show how few sports bear up to repeated viewing. Who needs to see a failed baton pass, a gymnast falling on his or her butt, or a disappointing basketball game again and again . . . and again.

At the low end of the gift-giving scale rests the traditional tie, money clip, or soap-on-a-rope, and at the high end - well, the sky's the limit. There's always someone on your list worth indulging, and sometimes there's even the money to do it. And while you might not be in the same league as Donald Trump or Tiger Woods, it's always fun to look.

If you're frustrated with the radio programing in your area (and, seriously, how could you not be these days?), the premise of satellite radio is like a dream come true: dozens of channels playing near-CD-quality music, organized by genre, brimming with vitality, and, best of all, almost uninterrupted.

To the uninitiated, TiVo owners can seem a bit cultlike. And if you're still living in the Dark Ages of analog tape recording, having yet to experience the divine Renaissance afforded by the video hard-disk recorder, or HDR, then the devotion might seem a bit absurd.