Early Tuesday morning just prior to a scheduled maintenance our NYC sysadmin was arrested outside our Lower Manhattan data center and his car impounded. For purposes of this story lets call him "Bill".



The problem? Apparently the NYPD thought Bill's New Jersey drivers license was expired (it wasn't) and they wanted to hold him for "identification". Bill spent 30 hours in jail.



Now mind you Bill is a very well dressed man, every time I've seen him in person I've thought he looks like an investment banker or a lawyer. He also drives a fairly new BMW.



Bill spent four years serving our country in the US Army and he has a Bachelors degree in Information Technology from a well-regarded public university.



Bill is very well spoken, polite, and respectful of authority figures.



Bill also happens to be black.



While I wasn't there and only have Bill's side of the story, somehow I doubt Bill would have been arrested had he been white. Heck I wonder if Bill would have even been stopped had he been white...

I'm wanting to take the plunge into home theater and HDTV but I have not the foggiest idea of what to buy.



Actually I lie, I know exactly what I would get if I had $5000+ to spend. However my budget is more the $1500-$2500 for the whole thing.



Note that I need in addition to the TV itself at least: a DVD player, A/V receiver, and speakers.  None of the components I currently have (old DVD player and crappy stereo) are worth recycling really and I'd want to replace any I kept even on an interim basis.



I do know I don't want a tube TV or rear projector. I also want the best sound and video quality I can get for the money.



So what would you recommend?

2/3 of the way through the year, time for another review of my 2007 goals:



1. New Job: Nailed this one, I got everything I was looking for even if it isn't quite my dream job.



2. New pad: Rented a house 7/17. Isn't quite my dream house or location but to be honest it is better in most respects than any place I've lived as an adult. Still have to finish unpacking and getting everything organized.



3. Loose weight/exercise: Not much progress here. I need to get a gym membership and bike to work a couple of days a week. Sadly the bus is almost too fast and convienient for commuting to work from the new house as crappy bus service or "you can't get there from here" is what forced me into bike commuting in the past. Still I need to start riding in at least part way to/from work or I'm never going to reduce the RoF.



4. Get car: Also not much progress. Waiting to financially recover a bit from moving. Though I now have a place to park one.



5. Be more social: No real progress here, been working way ...

So the time has come to get a new phone. The phones I'm considering in no particular order are:

• AT&T 8525
• Palm Treo 750
• Samsung Blackjack
• Cingular 8125
• Cingular 3125
• Apple iPhone
  
  

Some features I'm looking for are: battery life, call quality, decent text messsage/email interface, way of syncing over the network with work Outlook, access to AIM IM network, decent mp3 player.



Any experiences or reccomendations anyone would care to relate?

I got Broadvand Connect service from AT&T Wireless Friday. So far I've been fairly happy with it. While not as fast as a good DSL or Cable modem connection, it is more than fast enough. VPN to work functioned just fine. Latency is low enough that I can use vi over an SSH session. Power draw is a big higher than when using the built-in wi-fi. Battery life drops by about 1/3 with the Broadband Connect running. The only reasons I'm not giving 5 stars are: 1) Cost: $60/month is a bit steep especially if you are paying for Cable or DSL at home. 2) The standard card has a big chunky antenna attached. This means you have to take the card out of the laptop when you put it away. There are some cards with retracting or folding antennas, but they are harder to come by. 3) Only officially supports windows. While some people report success getting the supplied Sierra Wireless cards to work with AT&T/Cingular's service on Linux and Macs, you aren't going to get any support from