John Sciacca

Every day, in audio/video superstores across this great land, the same scenario plays out with frightening regularity. Someone, lusting after high-definition TV, spends thousands of dollars on the set of his dreams. And then, having been turned on to surround sound by hearing his buddy's home theater, he asks the salesman to recommend a speaker system.

Remember that commercial when plasma TVs first came out, with that couple randomly placing their new plasma set on different walls around their apartment until they finally settled on a ceiling mount? That ad always bugged me because they made it look so easy to just decide where you wanted your TV to go and then put it there. What about the power? What about the cable hookup?

Three years ago, I received an e-mail from my cousin, Chris, who was stationed in the Philippines with his team of Navy SEALs. His message described life in the village where they were staying, the people he was "working" with, the unusual local cuisine, and so on.

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.