big monitor
Every Christmas I buy a present for myself, and it's usually something good but nothing too crazy because, well, money's tight as always.
Being the practical bloke I am, I don't usually buy things that serve as nothing but trinkets, ornaments or whatever because that's just wasted money. What I bought this year does serve a very legitimate practical use and is something that will make my computing life a little easier.
This year, my to-me gift was a 24-inch computer monitor, the ASUS VE248H. Price paid was $169 with free shipping. And as I've just learned, the priced jumped to $199 the day after I made my purchase, so I definitely bought it at the right time. NewEgg had the best price because I searched this particular display on eBay and nobody is selling it for under $199 at the moment, so $169 was the best possible price there was. I guess it was in the cards that this was the right time to buy.
The last time I bought a monitor was almost 5 years ago on the nose on 2-Dec-2006, and it was the BenQ FP202W. The price paid for that 20.1-inch monitor was $276.71, and I do distinctly remember feeling I spent too much on it. In retrospect, I should have bought a standard-aspect 19-inch, but whatever. Lesson learned.
The FP202W's display has never been quite right since day one. Yes, it works, but I really noticed how washy the colors are and how fonts fuzz on it when I got my cheap little Dell mini 10v netbook. Everything on the 10v's display is so much clearer compared to the BenQ.
I will give the nod that the FP202W has always been bright and black does show as true black, but there's just something about the way it renders certain things that just doesn't seem quite right, particularly in the font department. Very tough to explain, but believe me, I notice it. My eyes literally start to blur after staring at that monitor too long where I'm more or less forced to use the netbook just to read on-screen stuff properly. There's an option to adjust the sharpness with 1 being sharpest and 5 being soft. I use setting 2 because 1 is too sharp, but on 2 I still don't get that happy medium between 1 and 2. If there were a 1.5 setting, believe me I'd use it.
My now-ancient 17-inch Sony SDM-S73 (which I paid a whopping $500 for in the early 2000s) that I use as my secondary display has always had a better picture, better color and has never had a problem displaying fonts properly whatsoever. I'm actually amazed the thing still works given the abuse it's been through, and it just goes to show that at one time Sony made some awesome stuff. Even on eBay you don't see SDM model Sony monitors for sale often because people refuse to give them up; they're that good. In fact, I'd say it's the best 17-inch LCD VGA monitor you could buy.
Back to the Asus VE248H, it is a matte (meaning not glossy) display, has built-in speakers which I won't be using, the controls are in the correct area (right/under) and has LED-backlighting which is far superior compared to the old incandescent backlight system.
I watched a video of a guy who paid $220 for his last year and said it was a great deal considering what it is.
On the negative side there are reports of ghosting issues with this particular display, however it's said that the reason for this is a specific ASUS monitor feature called "Overdrive" and that it can be disabled completely to rid the vast majority of the ghosting issues.
I don't have the monitor in my possession yet as I just bought it and it'll take a few days before it gets here.
The big risk here buying from NewEgg is they have an 8-dead-pixel policy for monitor returns. Unless there are 8 dead pixels, you can't return it for a replacement. However there was nobody selling this display anywhere near NewEgg's low price point, so I took the risk and went for it. The BenQ was also bought from NewEgg and it never had any pixel issues, so hopefully the ASUS won't either.
Dazed and Confused was released in 1993. I first watched this flick in the '90s and recently re-watched it.
My collection of songs is nearing completion and will be released relatively soon, but one thing I won't be doing is pressing any CDs. The distribution method I'll be going through does offer it as an on-demand thing for those that actually want the disc (I think?), but as far as actually buying stock, no way.
Any artist that presses CDs these days is an idiot for the simple reason that nobody wants them. Nobody carries around a portable CD player. Both kids and adults either use iPods, cell phones, their computer of a combination of all three - but no discs. The only time anyone listens to a disc anymore is in the car, and only if the car does not have an AUX port for an iPod or cell phone.
If I was touring (and who knows, maybe I will?), the only merchandise I'd be selling at shows would be t-shirts and vinyl records. 45 RPM speed, specifically. Why vinyl records? Because it's way more attractive than a CD, is an instant collectible, people will buy them just because it's vinyl regardless of whether they like your music or not, and most importantly they actually sell because of their special and unique nature.
Anyway..
Back in the early 2000s during my previous life, there were several regional "scene" web sites along with a few crappy "labels", all of which went under. The reason they all failed is because the only audience those sites ever attracted were musicians and not actual fans. When you have a site that's all-musician and no-fans, that's a recipe for nobody-cares stew.
Before everyone had iPods and cell phones that could play MP3s, all these scene/label sites were hocking CDs from various bands, the vast majority of which were metal bands that just plain sucked. Very few people actually bought discs even back then. Heck, I even knew bands who pressed CDs that literally had piles of unsold copies, and again, remember this is before the whole iPod thing. If they didn't sell then, what makes anyone think people would buy them now?
In the end, if you really want a CD of my stuff, I'm pretty sure the distro method I'm using will have an option for it, but otherwise it's all-digital first and foremost.
What I bought today was a 7-port USB hub, an external card reader, and an internal USB card for the PC.
There are those who believe I wield a Squier well enough to have a signature Squier Strat model. I guess this gives me all the more reason to get my release of songs ready sooner than later.
Anyway, I did give this some thought, and if Squier ever did approach me for a signature model, my goal would be to deliver something good at the same price point as a Squier J5 Telecaster - and I think that's very do-able.