I bought one.

It works with my Toshi 320g hard drive, and one of my 8 gig flash drives -- it does not work with two others. It looks nice, it sees the folders and plays xvid and DVD folders complete with menus.

Also, I can't find a manual (much less a firmware update) for this anywhere on the Iomega web site. A serial # search leads to a legacy mp3 player!

It would be nice if they'd add the HD versions of some cable channels I actually watch somewhat regularly (FX, Sci-Fi, USA) and stop with the channels I watch maybe once a year.

@hedonism, the add-ons of HBO, Sho, Cin & Starz are supposedly east coast feeds, which we don't have now. And we don't have KCET (we have KOCE) or Science -- these are new.

The Doctor held a conversation across time with the episode's heroine, Sally Sparrow, via a series of edited-together Easter Eggs from 17 unrelated DVDs.

FYI -- it wasn't a series of edited together easter eggs, the same easter egg was on all 17 DVDs :) He wanted to make it easy for her to find, not hard! It would be impossible for anyone to edit together that conversation :)

I want a t-shirt with "The Angels Took My Phone Box"

You can have one with "The Angels Have the Phone Box" -- which is the proper quote :) Just search CafePress... some of them are really beautifully done.

Yes, an awesome episode all around. Hardly a surprise from the writer of The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances and Girl in the Fireplace.

(Now if only he'd finish the story about Captain Jack's 2 years of missing memories...)

It's not a question of "boycotting" for me, I just don't want to be the dope stuck with a machine and discs for the format that doesn't survive. I still have a laserdisc player boxed up in the garage. So I don't see any reason to rush into a purchase of either format until it becomes clear which one is likely to make it.

OTOH, I have pretty much stopped buying regular DVDs for the moment in anticipation of getting one of the HD formats in the next year or two. In the meantime I can rent what I want to see from Netflix.

I have not heard a single good thing about the new Direct TV DVR.

I'm a cable user, and I use the cable DVR box because it gets hi-def. (My TiVo is still around as a secondary unit.) After TiVo, I find the cable DVR to be miserable on almost every level. I can't wait for the new TiVo to come out so I can have hi-def and TiVo.

Good luck, though. I think you'll need it.

Am I the only woman who reads this blog? :)

Anyway, to answer your question, no. To assume that women will buy a $3500 TV based on its "looks" rather than how the *picture* looks, along with other features, is really kind of insulting.

And I say this as the owner of a 42" WEGA and a Vaio laptop. Both of which were purchased for their performance.

Wow, talk about Missing the Point Entirely. The show is not about the numbers, the monster, the mysteries, etc. It's about characters. And how these characters learn and react, grow and change. How their past experiences inform their present. It is a character-driven show in an adventure show wrapping. The people who consider the episodes that focus on character to be "filler" do not get it and never will. They should quit watching because the show will never make them happy.

I think most of your concerns aren't really issues. You make the point that the look and feel of the series is well-established; the director needs to be competent and get out of the way, and a skilled TV director probably fits the bill perfectly well. And seriously, you're worried about the budget for *actors*? How much do you think they pay these folks? They cast, for the most part, skilled working actors, not stars who demand millions. It's a drop in the bucket of the budget, and these are hugely profitable movies. Nor am I concerned about the young actor's ages. After puberty, there's a lot more latitude in age range. A 15 year old can't play 11, but a 19 year old can certainly play 16. We're so used to it from TV that it's beyond notice for most people. How old was the cast of Buffy when they were playing 16? How old is the cast of Veronica Mars playing 17? Recasting would be a disaster compared to the relatively minor age-fudging. The only concern you mention that I'd consider major is the adaptation of the longer books, from 4 onwards. If most fans seem happy with the film version of GoF, which is the first long book, I don't see a reason to assume they'd be unhappy with 5 onwards, either. Harry Potter books, despite their length, are easier to adapt than, say, something like Lord of the Rings, with its multiple narratives in different locations. You can pare down a lot of the subplots in HP without losing much that's important.