Buying a PC: Some Simple Advice

From PC Mag - Simple Advice on Buying A PC by Mike Miller. At this time of year, I am often often asked this question: "Which PC should I buy?" I always respond with the same question: "What are you going to do with it?"

More specifically, here are some questions you should ask if you're buying a PC. The answers can help you find the right PC for you.

Desktop or Laptop? Most consumer PCs these days are laptops or notebook computers, which have the obvious advantage of portability. However, desktop PCs typically give you more performance and more expandability for the money, and often come with larger displays. I typically recommend desktops to heavy-duty gamers; and to anyone who won't be moving the computer.

But most people, even if they are not planning on taking the computer with them every day, like the flexibility of being able to move their machine around. Mac or Windows? This sometimes feels like a religious war, but I think it really comes down to which you find more important: simplicity or choice. Macs are simpler, and the iLife suite is better integrated than most of the Windows equivalents for tasks such as working with music, photos, and video. And most Mac users are comfortable without installing antivirus software. But for most classes of machines, Macs are notably more expensive initially.

Windows machines give you many more choices--in machine types, features, price ranges, and vendors. They're the only real choice for PC gamers (you can put Windows on top of a Mac with BootCamp or a third party utility such as Parallels or VMWare Fusion, but you still need to buy Windows separately).

Windows 7 is on almost every consumer PC you'll find now, and it's more elegant and better to work with than its predecessors. I do highly recommend running some security software; at least a free tool like those offered by AVG and Microsoft Security Essentials, or more likely, one of the commercial tools such as Norton Internet Security or 360, McAfee, or Kapersky. But the good news is that these packages are less intrusive these days. (PCMag's security software reviews are a helpful guides.)

Linux is another option, with Ubuntu as the most common desktop distribution these days; but Linux is aimed at technical users who are mostly building their own systems. You're not likely to see a Linux machine if you're looking for a typical consumer PC.

How much performance do you need?: Odds are you fit into one of these categories: Compute-intensive desktop: This is for people who run high-end content creation applications, from big spreadsheets to content-creation tools such as video-editing and photo-manipulation applications. Here I tend to think you're best off with a high-end Intel processor, typically a quad-core Core i7 or Core i5, paired with a relatively high-end discrete graphics card like the ATI Radeon 4000 series or the Nvidia GT 100 or GT 200 series with 512MB of graphics memory. You'll want at least 4GB of memory, and many of the machines in this category have 6GB or 8GB. You'll also probably want a big hard drive: 1TB drives are easy to come by in this category.

On the Apple side, the Mac Pro is the major entry in this category, though the new quad-core 27-inch iMac is another reasonable choice.

Gaming desktop: For gamers, the graphics card is probably more important than the processor. Look for an ATI Radeon 4000 or 5000 series; or the Nvidia GT200 series, probably with 1GB of graphics memory. On the processor side, I'd go with an AMD Phenom II X4 or an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processor. Since gamers tend to upgrade more frequently, look at the case design, and make sure it's something with which you'd be comfortable doing an upgrade. This is mainly a Windows category, though you would could add Windows on top of the quad-core iMac and also come up with a good performer. In this category, you typically find three kinds of vendors for a Windows-based machine--a high-end model from the mainstream vendors, a boutique machine from a company that is focused on gaming desktops such as Alienware or Falcon Northwest, or building it yourself. You'll spend more in the latter two categories, but will often wind up with machines designed for special cooling and overclocking; if you fit this category of gamer, you know it.

Workhorse desktop: This is for t,e mainstream--a machine that does Web browsing, email, basic productivity applications such as word processing, and maybe some light gaming. Typically, this is the province of dual-core processors today; and most current AMD and Intel processors are just fine.

You'll likely see somewhat higher computer performance in the Intel configurations (which tend to cost more and have slightly higher-end other components) and better gaming performance in the AMD configurations. At this point, a 64-bit machine with 4GB of memory is very common; though you can find 32-bit machines with 2GB of memory for very little money.

You'll get better performance with the 4GB machines, especially for things like multitasking. On the Apple side, your choice here is the iMac, and I'd recommend either the lowest-end 21.5-inch version or the 27-inch version with a better graphics card, if you like a bigger display. I'm not a big fan of the relatively underpowered Mac Mini. If you're buying a desktop, there are two other questions to think about:

Traditional case or all-in-one? A traditional case gives you more options for expandability, because you can easily swap graphics cards, drives, and so o-. I'd probably recommend that to a gamer or to someone doing high-end compute applications, as they are most likely to upgrade. For most mainstream users, the real question comes down to the combination of a small-form-factor PC with an external monitor or an all-in-one computer, where the machine is built into the display.

Small-form-factor machines are less expensive and let you reuse an existing display; all-in-one designs are a bit more elegant, and in the Windows world, you can even choose touch displays. (Apple's only traditional case is on the high-end MacPro, so most buyers will get the all-in-one iMac.)

What size display do you want? This is a crucial question, and one that often gets overlooked. The size of the display impacts a lot of your computing experience. Bigger is often better, but not always: For instance, you really don't want to use a TV as a monitor in most cases, because the resolution is designed for video, not for Web browsing or typing. You want to match the screen resolution with your display size, so you get fonts that are comfortable to read. In the traditional desktop market, you can attach any size display you want; or a display you already have. If you're buying a separate monitor, today a 23-inch monitor at around $200 may be your best deal if you have the desk space.

http://blogs.pcmag.com/miller/2009/11/buying_a_pc_some_simple_advice.php

11/24/63 - Jack Ruby Guns Down Lee Harvey Oswald

On Nov. 24, 1963, Jack Ruby shot and mortally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President Kennedy.

Video link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snShVwfTStA

On This Day 11/21/64 - Verrazano Bridge Opened to Traffic

On this day,, November 21, 194, the sun shone, the sky was cloudless; bands played, cannons echoed up and down the harbor, flags waved, and thousands of motorists yesterday became part of the first--and perhaps only-- blissful traffic jam on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.

The bridge, which took more than five years to build and which reaches like a rainbow over the Narrows between Brooklyn and Staten Island, was officially opened to traffic at 3 P.M. "This latest addition to our city's great wealth of bridges represents a new summit of achievement," Mayor Wagner told the crowd assembled near the world's longest suspended span. "Surely we must see it not only as the biggest, but as the most beautiful of all, the most princely, and the most stately."

A young man in a rented tuxedo, driving a pale blue Cadillac convertible with flags flapping from the fenders, was the first man to cross the bridge and pay the 50-cent toll. He, together with his young companions (also in rented tuxedos), had parked all week behind the Staten Island toll gate to assure their official position as the first to cross. When they crossed the 6,690-foot span, passing through the arches of the two steel towers that are as tall as 70-story skyscrapers, the youths were cheered by the crowds standing on the Brooklyn side of the bridge.

In Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, the neighborhood that had protested the building of the bridge five years ago, had bunting waving from buildings, and flags galore. The only obvious signs of disenchantment along the Brooklyn shore yesterday were the picket lines of teen-agers who protested the bridge's lack of pedestrian walkways. "Are Feet Obsolete?" one sign asked. It was the belief of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority, which financed the building of the $325 million bridge, that a walkway would not only be expensive and relatively little used but that it might also prove attractive to suicides, who often are drawn to new and famous places.

Deeper into Brooklyn yesterday, there was another group of mildly disappointed people--the bridge builders. They boycotted the ceremony yesterday, responding to a call by the iron- workers' union leader in Manhattan, Raymond R. Corbett, who last week denounced Robert Moses for his failure to invite the men "who put that bridge together piece by piece, strand by strand." Mass for Three Victims Instead, Mr. Corbett and his ironworkers said they would attend a mass in honor of the three workmen killed during the construction of the bridge. Nevertheless, the men who built the bridge were given credit and applauded in speeches on both sides of the Bridge. Mayor Wagner mentioned them, as did Roger M. Blough, board chairman of United States Steel, and others. "Indeed, to all the named and unnamed thousands, the eight million citizens of New York City say 'Thank you' for the mightiest bridge in the world," Mayor Wagner said.

The Mayor also read a congratulatory message from President Johnson hailing the bridge as "a structure of breath-taking beauty and super engineering" and "a brilliant example of how several levels of government can work in cooperation for the common good." All in all, on the bridge at least, it was a harmonious day.

At 11 A.M., on the Brooklyn side of the bridge, 1,500 official guests gathered to witness the ribbon-cutting ceremony. 52-Car Motorcade They arrived in 52 black limousines--a line of cars that moved as slowly as a funeral procession over the smooth white highway that cuts through Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and circles a few times and finally links with the entrance to the bridge.

In the first car was Robert Moses, wearing his battered gray fedora. In following cars were Cardinal Spellman, Mayor Wagner and Governor Rockefeller; then Abe Stark, Borough President of Brooklyn, and Albert V. Maniscalco, Borough President of Richmond. There were so many other participants--generals, admirals, politicians, women in mink coats, business leaders, pretty girls--that a traffic jam resulted a half-mile beyond the point where the ribbon-cutting ceremony was to be held. The dignitaries left their cars parked, bumper to bumper, and came rushing up to the spot where the band was playing, and where a man was holding five gold scissors to be used by the five top officials to cut the ribbon that stretched across the approach to the bridge.

Such a crowd that had pushed in from the shoulder of the road that Governor Rockefeller could not get through. Ten minutes later, he and Mr. Wagner, Mr. Stark, Mr. Maniscalco and Mr. Moses held their scissors out and, on signal, snapped down. Governor Rockefeller was first. Then they all went back to the cars for the motorcade across the bridge to Staten Island.

It was a perfect day for crossing a bridge. They could see, as they moved in the motorcade across the 4,260-foot center span--the longest in the world--the whole view of the harbor, the ships below, the fireboats shooting spray into the air, the cannon smoke, the helicopters hovering over the tall bridge towers that stood 693 feet in the air. The mightiest blast from below came from the liner United States, which passed under the bridge during the dedication ceremonies. The ship was returning to New York from her annual dry- docking in Newport News, Va.

In one limousine in the motorcade--the 18th car behind Mr. Moses' limousine--sat the 85-year- old designer of the bridge, O. H. Ammann. Designer Silent A quiet and modest man, he was barely recognized by the politicians and other dignitaries at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. He stood in the crowd without saying a word, although occasionally, as inconspicuously as he could, he sneaked a look at the bridge looming in the distance, sharply outlined in the cloudless sky. "How do you feel, Mr. Ammann?" somebody asked, almost startling the lean engineer who wore a blue coat and blue muffler around his neck. "Oh," he said, slowly, a little self-consciously, "as I feel every day." When the official motorcade arrived in Staten Island, Mr. Ammann got out of the car and slipped quietly up into his grandstand and did not say another word the rest of the day.

Mr. Moses was the master of ceremonies. He introduced Cardinal Spellman, who delivered the invocation, and the introduced George V. McLaughlin and William J. Tracy, officials with the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. Then he introduced Mr. Ammann. "I now ask that one of the significant great men of our time--modest, unassuming and too often overlooked on such grandiose occasions--stand and be recognized." Mr. Amman, removing his hat, his brown hair blowing back in the breeze, stood and looked at the crowd of about 1,000 guests seated and standing before him. "It may be that in the midst of so many celebrities, you don't even know who he is," Mr. Moses continued, as the crowd applauded. "My friends, I ask that you now look upon the greatest living bridge engineer, perhaps the greatest of all time. "A Swiss who has lived and labored magnificently 60 years in this country and is still active, the designer of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, respected throughout the world and regarded here with deep affection." There was more applause, but Mr. Moses forgot to mention his name. Mr. Ammann sat quietly down, again lost in the second row of the grandstand.

Next there were words by Arthur O. Davidson, president of Wagner College in Staten Island; and then (in Italian) words by Giuseppe Lupis, Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the Italian Government. Harry Van Arsdale Jr., president of the New York City Central Labor Council, rose and thanked Robert Moses for the work that his projects had provided. There were short speeches by Peter J. Brennan, President of the Building and Construction Trades Council; Rex M. Whitton, Federal Highway Administrator; the two Borough Presidents and S. Sloan Colt, chairman of the Port of New York Authority.

Realizing it was getting late and chillier the two Governors present--Mr. Rockefeller and Richard J. Hughes of New Jersey--discarded their formal speeches in favor of a few informal words. After the benediction by Rabbi Benjamin B. Wykansky of Temple Emanu-El in Staten Island, and more music by the Department of Sanitation band clustered near the tollgates, the big motorcade gunned its cool engines and began the ride back to Brooklyn--and to a party in tents under the elevated approaches.

Parties Abound Throughout Brooklyn and Staten Island yesterday and last night, there were other parties--small informal ones, and some larger ones in public rooms--celebrating the bridge, which is expected to do so much to facilitate traffic, and build up business and population in the hitherto isolated borough of Staten Island. In the first hour after the bridge opened to traffic, about 5,000 cars crossed the span, more than 70 per cent of them from the Staten Island side.

By 4:30 P.M. the stream of curious motorists had dwindled and traffic rolled freely in both directions. The first 50-cent toll was paid by the 22-year-old man in the Cadillac--George Scarpelli, an employee of the Parks department. His passengers, all fellow Staten Islanders, were Richard Ramaglia, Ben Goldsmith, Ron Saccof, Ben Caplan, Anthony Lenza and Frank Picone. The coin was pocketed by Larry Chrusano, the collector, who replaced it with his own money.

Zhu Zhu Pets - Hamster Is the Season’s Hottest Toy

The hottest toy this holiday season isn't Elmo, a ticklish red monster. It’s a fake hamster.

Known as Zhu Zhu Pets, the artificial rodents have some advantages over the real thing. They do not stink, chew electric wires, or run around their cages making noise at night. In fact, they do not need cages.

Children are delighted at how they coo and scoot about unpredictably. Parents are delighted not to have to clean up after them. And at $7.99 each, the hamsters are recession-friendly.

The trouble is, Zhu Zhu Pets are so popular that stores cannot keep them in stock. The critters are routinely sold out at the likes of Toys “R” Us, Wal-Mart and Target, though more will hit the shelves the day after Thanksgiving, when deal-seekers wake up early to shop for bargains. In the meantime, the hamsters are being sold at a premium on the Internet.

“Beware of the price-gouging on Amazon and eBay, which we don’t condone,” said Natalie Hornsby, director of marketing for Cepia, the St. Louis company that created Zhu Zhu Pets.

The five different battery-operated hamsters — Chunk, PipSqueak, Mr. Squiggles, Num Nums and Patches — are mainly coveted by girls, according to toy industry professionals. This possibly makes sense; Jim Silver, editor in chief of TimetoPlayMag .com, pointed out that girls also own the majority of live hamsters.

Boys, it appears, are wild this year for Bakugan Battle Brawlers, a game that uses cards and action figures hidden inside small spheres. The goal is to be the first player to capture three of your opponent’s cards, known as Gate cards. (The name comes from the Japanese words “baku,” meaning “to explode,” and “gan,” meaning “sphere.”) Yet as popular as Bakugan is, the hamsters are upstaging that game and everything else in toy land this season.

“It clearly is the hottest phenomenon of the year,” said Gerald L. Storch, chairman and chief executive of Toys “R” Us. “There’s no doubt about that.”

After seeing a commercial in October for Zhu Zhu Pets, Tracey Henry of Safety Harbor, Fla., decided to buy one for her 6-year-old daughter, even though the girl wanted a real hamster for her birthday. Ms. Henry considered a fake hamster a better idea, so she went to Toys “R” Us.

“The shelves were empty,” she said, “and there were these signs that said, ‘Limit four Zhu Zhu Pets per day.’ ”

Ms. Henry, who writes the blog SuburbanDiva.com, returned home and began calling local toy stores and scouring the Web sites of Toys “R” Us, Wal-Mart and Target, with no luck. In the end, she bought a Zhu Zhu Pet on Amazon, marked up to $34.99.

“We got the yellow one,” Ms. Henry said. “We should rename it ‘greenback.’ ”

The nation’s stores, which have become familiar with these sorts of tales, are trying to round up enough hamsters for the holidays.

Toys “R” Us said this week that it would have tens of thousands of Zhu Zhu Pets in stock on the Friday after Thanksgiving. But consumers will have to drink coffee with their turkey if they want a hamster: Toys “R” Us stores will open on Thanksgiving at midnight, and the first 100 customers in line will receive a ticket for a Zhu Zhu Pet, with a limit of one for each household.

“Others may try to make a lot of noise out of a few hamsters,” Mr. Storch said, “but we have by far the most inventory and opportunity to find Zhu Zhu at any retailer.” (Next month, Toys “R” Us plans to offer an exclusive $100 Zhu Zhu Pets set that includes — brace yourself — two hamsters, an exercise wheel, a fun house, a car and garage, an adventure ball and a sleep dome.)

Melissa O’Brien, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Stores, declined to comment on the chain’s Black Friday hamster plans, though she said the chain had more Zhu Zhu Pets on the way.

“At this time, we’re even air-shipping them in some markets,” she said. But she warned that when the hamsters do arrive, “a lot of them don’t spend the night in a store.”

Indeed, Cepia has found itself increasing hamster production and fielding phone calls from parents desperately seeking Zhu Zhu Pets, as well as their slightly pricier accessories, like a ramp with slide and a garage with car. There is even a surfboard.

Ms. Hornsby said the hamsters take their name from “zhu zhu,” or “little pig” in Chinese, which the folks at Cepia thought was fitting, given that hamsters are known for making messes.

Mr. Silver of TimetoPlayMag .com said a toy hamster had not been this hot for at least a decade, when Americans became enamored of one that danced to “Kung Fu Fighting.”

Cepia is relatively new. Founded in 2002, it has 16 employees in the United States and 25 in China. Ms. Hornsby, the marketing director, said Zhu Zhu Pets were the company’s breakthrough toy. “This is definitely our big fish,” she said, forgetting the hamster lingo for a moment. “Every day, we are humbled by what’s going on.”

The creators of Bakugan have more experience with this sort of craze. Bakugan, a Japanese import that some industry professionals have likened to the Pokémon phenomenon, was a hit last Christmas. The must-have addition to the toy line this year is Bakugan 7-in-1 Maxus Dragonoid, which, at $39.99, enables children to connect several game pieces to form one intimidating creature. Toys “R” Us has an exclusive 7-in-1 Bakugan, New Vestroia Maxus Helios, also for $34.99.

Harold Chizick, vice president of global communications and promotions for Spin Master, the creator of Bakugan, said the toys were all the rage because children liked collecting the cards and action figures just as much as battling. There is also a hit Bakugan Battle Brawlers anime television show that has fueled sales. “We have increased manufacturing and expedited shipment to be here for the holiday season,” Mr. Chizick said.

While it is the second Christmas for Bakugan, Mr. Silver of TimetoPlayMag.com noted that “when you have a hot item like this, usually Year 2 is bigger than Year 1.” That is primarily because the toy companies are able to ramp up to meet demand the second year.

Josh Green, chief executive of Panjiva, which tracks water-borne goods, said shipments of Zhu Zhu Pets to the United States skyrocketed for the three months ended in October.

But a warning to mischievous children everywhere: Mr. Green noted that shipments of coal were also up, by 6 percent, over last year.

The 10 Best '60s Batman TV Villains Who Should Make the Leap to Comic Books

Bat-fans in the '60s tuned into the Adam West Batman TV show for one reason: the awesome villain guest-stars. Sure, West was campy, Yvonne Craig's Batgirl was hot, and Stafford Repp's Chief O'Hara was painfully Irish, but none of them held a Bat-candle to the weekly parade of colorful celebrity kooks who showed up to do battle with the Dynamic Duo.

More here...

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/11/10_60s_batman_tv_villains_who_should_make_the_leap.php

Tom Petty: Rock God Or Mere Mortal?

Rock God Or Mere Mortal?
As Tom Petty prepares to release a career-spanning anthology next week, an attempt to determine where he falls in the music pantheon.

Tom Petty goes to work in a Van Nuys warehouse next to an auto shop and an upholsterer. His band the Heartbreakers rehearses there, still looking for ways to improve after more than 30 years together. On paper, Mr. Petty rivals other acts who have lasted for decades, such as Bruce Springsteen or Neil Young. He's sold some 60 million albums, is ubiquitous on classic rock stations and has collaborated with music legends from Bob Dylan to George Harrison. Last year, he played the Super Bowl and much of the nation knew every chorus.

But Mr. Petty is keenly aware that for some people, that's just not good enough.

"I don't know that anyone's out there waving the banner for us being the best rock and roll band there is," the singer says. "But we might be."

Where does Tom Petty fit in the rock pantheon? Musicians from Ike Turner to Aerosmith have been the subject of such debate, which rock fans conduct as if they're carving Mount Rushmores, in barroom arguments, Internet flame wars and even a Hall of Fame in Cleveland. But Mr. Petty is especially emblematic of the blurred—and highly subjective—line between skilled entertainer and timeless rock icon.

Mr. Petty's own take? While other bands are paid more lip service, he says, "we can really kick their ass, you know?"

Lately he's been examining the evidence. He spent more than a year combing the Heartbreakers' archive of concert recordings to compile his "dream gig." Exactly 169 takes of "American Girl" later, the band's "Live Anthology" box set will be released next week. Mr. Petty has looked back in other ways as he approaches his 60th birthday next year. In 2007 he reassembled Mudcrutch, the band that went belly up before the Heartbreakers formed in 1976. With Warner Bros., the singer also commissioned a retrospective film, resulting in a four-hour documentary that last year won a Grammy.

In Mr. Petty's legacy, there's much fodder for discussion.

On one hand, the laconic Florida native is a highly disciplined songsmith whose run of anthems spanned three decades, from "Breakdown" and "American Girl" in the late 1970s, to "Learning to Fly" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance" in the early 1990s. On the other hand, his commercial success was sniffed at by some critics, especially those enthralled with another earthy rocker who emerged a bit earlier: Springsteen. Mr. Petty's loyalty to the straight-ahead sound of his idols of the 1950s—Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis and other early rockers—may have deterred him from exploring experimental (and potentially fruitful) artistic territory.
Tune In

"History smiles on [Iggy Pop and] the Stooges, the Ramones, Elvis Costello"—edgy acts of Mr. Petty's generation who reset the boundaries of rock, says Robert Hilburn, a veteran critic and author of the recent book "Corn Flakes With John Lennon." By contrast, the Heartbreakers first two albums "were not trailblazing in any way." Mr. Hilburn says Mr. Petty reached his peak on later albums, and ranks "Damn the Torpedoes" (1979) and "Southern Accents" (1985) among the era's strongest, but at the time most critics were too busy "genuflecting over Springsteen."

Over the course of his career, Mr. Petty has racked up at least 26 Top-10 singles, many of which still serve as the default mode of classic rock stations. Still, his knack for radio-friendly hooks may have cost him points in the long run.

"It's an inverse snobbery," says filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, who directed "Runnin' Down a Dream," the recent Heartbreakers documentary. He adds, "Tom has had so many pop hits. For some reason in America that's considered not quite chic. Too many people like him."

Mr. Petty's not complaining. Like most performers, he avoids the "over-intellectualizing" of rock, the bandying of stats and rankings. But he's adamant about the respect he feels is owed to certain artists, including those in his own band, such as longtime lead guitarist Mike Campbell.
Listen

In the band's warehouse rehearsal space in Van Nuys, over the hills from Mr. Petty's home in Malibu, racks of guitars are sorted by make and model. The Heartbreakers call it their clubhouse. Sitting at a table, Mr. Petty drinks coffee and smokes Shepheard's Hotel cigarettes from Germany. He wears a vest over a striped Western shirt.

The singer is at ease discussing his career trajectory. It was around the Heartbreakers' 20th year in music that he noticed that fans and critics were more eager to talk about his old songs than his newest ones, and the past became more marketable than the future. While that did represent "a red wagon you have to drag around," he says, he also took it as the hallmark of a substantial career, one he describes with pride and bemused awe. Still, he believes that if he's underrated, it's partly because of his distaste for self-promotion.

"We were never really Boy Scouts, you know. My vision of a rock and roll band wasn't one that cuddled up to politicians, or went down the red carpet. That kind of thing you see so much of today. I felt like once that stuff starts happening your audience doesn't know whether to trust you or not."

This avoidance of the (offstage) spotlight might seem surprising for a singer whose face was one of the most familiar on MTV. His sly music videos, including the Alice In Wonderland-inspired clip for 1985's "Don't Come Around Here No More," helped the network break into the mainstream, and remained a staple of its programming into the 1990s when "we were so old it was silly." In retrospect, he says, making videos "was just about adapting and surviving."

It's one of Mr. Petty's many apparent contradictions. He was a darling of rock radio, but he has famously tangled with the industry. In 1979 he fought a legal battle with MCA to get out of his record contract, and a couple of years later he successfully opposed a price hike for his new album to $9.98, a then-unprecedented high. In that way, he's an industry outsider who has written some of the most inclusive songs in rock.

"He has more of an everyman quality than a lot of icons do. And that makes a music nerd like me think I could have a beer with him without feeling like I'm talking to some kind of deity," says television producer Bill Lawrence. His homage: In the ABC sitcom he co-created, "Cougar Town," about a fortysomething woman's misadventures in dating young men, every episode is named after a Petty song.

Mr. Petty set himself apart in other ways. While Dylan and the Stones have licensed their music to advertisers, Mr. Petty says, what for? "We don't really need the dough that bad." The singer has sought keep his concert tickets affordable. And unlike, say, Mr. Costello, who has collaborated with string quartets, Mr. Petty says he's satisfied with being a workaday auteur: "To write a good song is enough. That was the loftiest ambition I had: to write a song that would endure."

One secret to Mr. Petty's long populist streak: women. Mr. Petty has written from a female perspective on a surprising number of songs, ranging from "American Girl" to the more recent "Orphan of the Storm." Howard Kramer, curatorial director at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, says, "Every time I go to one of his shows, I marvel that his audience is one of the most diverse in rock and roll, in terms of gender and age. And that can't be said of most of his competitors."

What at first sounded like drudgery, Mr. Petty says, digging through 30 years of concert recordings for the coming "Live Anthology," turned into an "adventure." Engineer Ryan Ulyate made the first pass through the recordings in the Heartbreakers' vault, including some old analog tapes that first needed to be baked in an oven before playing to prevent disintegration. He assembled an iTunes library of some 3,500 songs, then pulled out hundreds of potential highlight tracks for Messrs. Campbell and Petty to assess. "It's amazing how the best take really shines compared to everything else," the singer says.

While the recordings prompt memory flashes from each era, Mr. Petty says, it's tough for him to recall specific concerts. One, however, stands out as perhaps "the worst gig" his band ever played, which somehow yielded the standout version of "I Won't Back Down." In 2007, at a benefit concert for the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Heartbreakers performed beneath the museum's giant blue whale. The posh audience ignored the band as they performed an acoustic set, capped with the defiant song which (to Mr. Petty's chagrin) has become a perennial fight song for campaigning politicians. Mr. Petty resented the indifference of the crowd of "billionaire kinds of people, many of whom you'd know," he recalls, acknowledging that this might have fired up the band. "At least I got a good track out of it," he says

By request, Mr. Petty pulled out noteworthy instruments as he ambled about the clubhouse. One, a dark brown acoustic bass guitar, he played during the sessions for Johnny Cash's 1996 album "Unchained." By the drum set was the candy-colored Rickenbacker he held on the "Damn the Torpedoes" cover. Strumming a Dove model Gibson, he showed how its slender neck allowed him to play for hours without tiring his hand. He's owned the guitar since he was 18 years old, and wrote almost all his biggest hits on it.

In his rehearsal space, Mr. Petty is surrounded by music legends. The walls are decorated with dozens of neatly clipped photos, featuring everyone from Jimi Hendrix to 1940s gospel-rocker Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Mr. Petty is a believer in the you-either-have-it-or-you-don't quality of music's enduring stars. On his radio show, "Tom Petty's Buried Treasure," now in its fifth year on Sirius XM Radio, he mixes Wilson Pickett, Slim Harpo and Jerry Lee Lewis with Steve Miller, Joe Cocker and Jakob Dylan's Wallflowers. On air, Mr. Petty goofs off with skits about a fictional petting zoo and sings the praises of lesser-known names, such as 82-year-old piano swinger Mose Allison. "I've never met him but I so admire his music. There's a purity," Mr. Petty says. "God, I'd love to attain that. It's hard to get it with pop music, so I've kind of turned my back on that."

As if to defy the critics, the Heartbreakers are at work on an album which is a departure for them, pursuing a style Mr. Petty says he probably didn't have the "maturity" to pull off in previous years. He describes it as a blues-based sound, with lots of open spaces and grooves inspired by those of J.J. Cale and Booker T. & the MGs. Fueling his excitement about the new material, the acknowledgment that he's no longer writing for radio. "Whether you wanted to admit it or not, that was always a factor," he says. "Letting that go, it's very freeing."

While the recordings prompt memory flashes from each era, Mr. Petty says, it's tough for him to recall specific concerts. One, however, stands out as perhaps "the worst gig" his band ever played, which somehow yielded the standout version of "I Won't Back Down." In 2007, at a benefit concert for the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Heartbreakers performed beneath the museum's giant blue whale. The posh audience ignored the band as they performed an acoustic set, capped with the defiant song which (to Mr. Petty's chagrin) has become a perennial fight song for campaigning politicians. Mr. Petty resented the indifference of the crowd of "billionaire kinds of people, many of whom you'd know," he recalls, acknowledging that this might have fired up the band. "At least I got a good track out of it," he says.

By request, Mr. Petty pulled out noteworthy instruments as he ambled about the clubhouse. One, a dark brown acoustic bass guitar, he played during the sessions for Johnny Cash's 1996 album "Unchained." By the drum set was the candy-colored Rickenbacker he held on the "Damn the Torpedoes" cover. Strumming a Dove model Gibson, he showed how its slender neck allowed him to play for hours without tiring his hand. He's owned the guitar since he was 18 years old, and wrote almost all his biggest hits on it.

In his rehearsal space, Mr. Petty is surrounded by music legends. The walls are decorated with dozens of neatly clipped photos, featuring everyone from Jimi Hendrix to 1940s gospel-rocker Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Mr. Petty is a believer in the you-either-have-it-or-you-don't quality of music's enduring stars. On his radio show, "Tom Petty's Buried Treasure," now in its fifth year on Sirius XM Radio, he mixes Wilson Pickett, Slim Harpo and Jerry Lee Lewis with Steve Miller, Joe Cocker and Jakob Dylan's Wallflowers. On air, Mr. Petty goofs off with skits about a fictional petting zoo and sings the praises of lesser-known names, such as 82-year-old piano swinger Mose Allison. "I've never met him but I so admire his music. There's a purity," Mr. Petty says. "God, I'd love to attain that. It's hard to get it with pop music, so I've kind of turned my back on that."

As if to defy the critics, the Heartbreakers are at work on an album which is a departure for them, pursuing a style Mr. Petty says he probably didn't have the "maturity" to pull off in previous years. He describes it as a blues-based sound, with lots of open spaces and grooves inspired by those of J.J. Cale and Booker T. & the MGs. Fueling his excitement about the new material, the acknowledgment that he's no longer writing for radio. "Whether you wanted to admit it or not, that was always a factor," he says. "Letting that go, it's very freeing."

Our Christmas Display....

Our Christmas Display is the home on the right...

(click on picture to enlarge)

More About Music for Cognitive Function, Mood, Fighting Memory Loss

Petr Janata, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California, Davis's Center for Mind and Brain, recently located an area of the brain—the medial prefrontal cortex, just behind the forehead—that seems to serve as a hub for music, memory and emotions.

In a study published online in the journal Cerebral Cortex in February, Dr. Janata had 13 UC Davis students listen to excerpts of 30 songs chosen randomly from "top 100" charts from years when they were 8 to 18 years old, while he recorded their brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI. Songs that were unfamiliar evoked reactions in the auditory processing parts of the students' brains; those that elicited emotional reactions stimulated other brain areas. When songs conjured up a specific personal memory, there was particularly strong activity in the medial prefrontal cortex. That's where what Dr. Janata calls "a mental movie" seems to play in the mind's eye, with music serving as its soundtrack.

And, it turns out, this same medial prefrontal cortex had been identified in earlier research as one of the last parts of the brain to atrophy as Alzheimer's disease progresses.

Dr. Janata hopes to study whether the same phenomenon occurs, in the same part of the brain, with older test subjects and eventually with Alzheimer's patients. He says that activating memories with music cannot reverse or cure neurological diseases like dementia. But playing familiar music frequently can significantly improve a patient's mood, alertness and quality of life.

Music therapy isn't used more widely with Alzheimer's and dementia patients largely because of a lack of manpower and money, experts say. There are only about 5,000 certified music therapists in the U.S., and fewer than 20% work with geriatric patients. That's why the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function is trying to bring music therapy into patients' homes.

Caregivers or family members can use records or tapes at home, or program their own iPods. The institute provides suggested songs by era and genre on its Web site, www.imnf.org. But those who don't have the time or technical skills can send an iPod to the institute after filling out a questionnaire about the patient's musical tastes, and the institute will program a customized iPod for them. (See the Web site for prices and package information.) The institute is also seeking donations of iPods that are no longer in use to load with music and send to Alzheimer's patients who can't afford their own.

What to Do: Old iPods

Your outdated or unused iPods or MP3 players could bring healing music to an Alzheimer's, stroke or pain patient. Send donations to the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function at 612 Allerton Ave., Bronx, NY, 10467. They must be working and still able to hold a charge.

Dr. Tomaino advises caregivers to listen as long as the patient seems interested. A patient may want to listen alone through headphones or through speakers so that a friend or family member can listen along. "Then they can reminisce together about what the music reminds them of or just hold hands to be more connected," she says. She also suggests involving the whole family in interacting with the music. "The kids can drum along while Grandpa listens to Big Band sounds," she says.

One possible downside: Dr. Tomaino says sometimes a song can evoke unhappy memories, such as the death of a loved one or a relationship gone bad. She recalls a Holocaust survivor at Beth Abraham who became very upset upon hearing a Wagner opera.

"If family members don't know what music would be appropriate, think in generalizations," she says. "If a parent loved to go dancing in their teens, picking the most popular songs from that era tends to be pretty safe." Music from a person's teenage years seems to be especially evocative of memories, for reasons not well understood.

Music Therapy: A Key For Unlocking Memories

One of the raps on iPods is that users tend to close themselves off from other people and retreat into their own private world. But with stroke and dementia patients, iPods and other MP3 players are having just the opposite effect, stimulating the medial prefrontal cortex, just behind the forehead—that seems to serve as a hub for music, memory and emotions according to the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function.

http://www.bethabe.org/Music_Therapy213.html

Listening to rap and reggae on a borrowed iPod every day has helped Everett Dixon, a 28-year-old stroke victim at Beth Abraham Health Services in Bronx, N.Y., learn to walk and use his hands again.

Trevor Gibbons, 52, who fell out of a fourth-floor construction site and suffered a crushed larynx, has become so entranced with music that he's written 400 songs and cut four CDs.

Ann Povodator, an 85-year-old Alzheimer's patient in Boynton Beach, Fla., listens to her beloved opera and Yiddish songs every day on an iPod with her home health aide or her daughter when she comes to visit. "We listen for at least a half-hour, and we talk afterwards," says her daughter, Marilyn Povodator. "It seems to touch something deep within her."

Illustration - Edel Rodriguez

Caregivers have observed for decades that Alzheimer's patients can still remember and sing songs long after they've stopped recognizing names and faces. Many hospitals and nursing homes use music as recreation, since it brings patients pleasure. But beyond the entertainment value, there's growing evidence that listening to music can also help stimulate seemingly lost memories and even help restore some cognitive function.

"What I believe is happening is that by engaging very basic mechanisms of emotions and listening, music is stimulating dormant areas of the brain that haven't been accessible due to degenerative disease," says Concetta Tomaino, executive director of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, a nonprofit organization founded at Beth Abraham in 1995.

Dr. Tomaino, who has studied the therapeutic effects of music for more than 30 years, is spearheading a new program to provide iPods loaded with customized playlists to help spread the benefits of music therapy to Alzheimer's patients even at home. "If someone loved opera or classical or jazz or religious music, or if they sang and danced when the family got together, we can recreate that music and help them relive those experiences," she says.

Music for Memory

Listen to clips of some '60s tunes recommended by the The Institute for Music and Neurologic Function for individuals with Alzheimer's Disease or other memory impairments:

• "The Times They Are A-Changin'" by Bob Dylan
• "Dawn (Go Away)" by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
• "Come a Little Bit Closer" by Jay & The Americans
• "California Girls" by The Beach Boys
• "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones

• See the full list and get more recommendations from the Institute's Web site.

Dr. Tomaino says she frequently sees dementia patients make gains in cognitive function after music therapy. In one unpublished study she led a few years ago, with funding from the New York State Department of Health, 45 patients with mid- to late-stage dementia had one hour of personalized music therapy, three times a week, for 10 months, and improved their scores on a cognitive-function test by 50% on average. One patient in the study recognized his wife for the first time in months.

David Ramsey, a music therapist and psychologist, holds twice weekly sessions at Beth Abraham, where small groups of patients can sing and dance to familiar songs like "Under the Boardwalk" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." Mr. Ramsey will sometimes stop singing and let residents fill in the blanks on their own. When they do that, he says, "they are exercising their cognitive function—just like they are exercising in physical therapy." And unfamiliar songs quickly become familiar, another sign that even advanced Alzheimer's patients are forming new memories. "One of our therapists played, 'Who Let the Dogs Out?' I know they had never heard that one, but it became an anthem," he says.

David Ramsey leads music sessions at Beth Abraham Services, meant to stimulate positive memories and physically engage dementia patients. In addition to benefiting Alzheimer's patients, decades of studies have demonstrated that music can help premature infants gain weight, autistic children communicate, stroke patients regain speech and mobility, dental, surgical and orthopedic patients control chronic pain and psychiatric patients manage anxiety and depression. Now, neuroscientists are starting to identify the underlying brain mechanisms that explain how music connects with the mind and body, and they are starting to work hand in hand with music therapists to develop new therapeutic programs.

There's no single center for music in the mind—the brain appears to be wired throughout for music, since it engages a wide variety of functions, including listening, language and movement. But Petr Janata, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of California, Davis's Center for Mind and Brain, recently located an area of the brain—the medial prefrontal cortex, just behind the forehead—that seems to serve as a hub for music, memory and emotions.

In a study published online in the journal Cerebral Cortex in February, Dr. Janata had 13 UC Davis students listen to excerpts of 30 songs chosen randomly from "top 100" charts from years when they were 8 to 18 years old, while he recorded their brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI. Songs that were unfamiliar evoked reactions in the auditory processing parts of the students' brains; those that elicited emotional reactions stimulated other brain areas. When songs conjured up a specific personal memory, there was particularly strong activity in the medial prefrontal cortex. That's where what Dr. Janata calls "a mental movie" seems to play in the mind's eye, with music serving as its soundtrack.

And, it turns out, this same medial prefrontal cortex had been identified in earlier research as one of the last parts of the brain to atrophy as Alzheimer's disease progress

from The Wall Street Journal.

"An Educated Consumer Is Our Best Customer" - Sy Syms

Sy Syms was a pioneer of off-price designer labels whose fame rested on folksy commercials that belied his talents as a merchandiser.

Mr. Syms, who died Nov. 17 at age 83, is remembered by many New York men as the source for their first suits, and by television viewers of both sexes as the star of late-night ads featuring Mr. Syms proclaiming, "An educated consumer is our best customer."

Sy Syms, shown in 2008, died Nov. 17 at age 83.

Originally a seller of bargain men's clothing and haberdashery in the Wall Street area, Mr. Syms later opened stores in suburban malls. He offered designer-label clothes at discounts he claimed were 30% to 50% and more off retail prices.

Mr. Syms's monotone gave few clues to his background as a broadcaster. Ultimately, Mr. Syms joined the pantheon of other do-it-yourselfer admen in the New York area, such as Tom Carvel in the ice-cream business and Victor Potamkin, an auto dealer. Mr. Syms was savvy enough to set up his own ad agency to ensure that he got the agency discount when he bought airtime.

"He had the ability to be a merchant, a promoter and a financier all at the same time," says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a retail consulting and investment banking firm. "He is the first guy to offer discount designer suits on a major scale."

Born Seymour Merinsky in Brooklyn, Mr. Syms was the son of Russian immigrants who started out in the collars and cuffs business. He served in the Army during World War II, studied broadcasting at New York University on the G.I. Bill, and worked as a radio broadcaster for a few years in the late 1940s, calling minor league baseball games.

In 1950, Mr. Syms joined his brother's clothing store, "Merns," near Manhattan's financial district. In 1959, he left to open his own store, called "Sy Merns," and was forced in a legal dispute to use a different name, according to an account provided by the company. He chose "Sy Syms," and opened on Cortlandt Street, near his brother's store and a few blocks from Wall Street.

"It was his joy to be on the selling floor from 12 noon to 2 o'clock," says Marcy Syms, Sy's daughter and now chief executive of the company. "That's when the traders and bankers and lawyers would come in." Today, salespeople are still called "educators," she says, which follows his habit. "He loved to explain the clothes."

The Cortlandt Street store made headlines when U.S. Steel Corp. wanted to eject Syms to make way for construction of a skyscraper in 1967. With months still remaining on his lease, Mr. Syms refused to budge and told The Wall Street Journal it would take "a minimum of $100,000" to get him to move. He soon moved for a much smaller sum.

Mr. Syms's shop on Cortlandt Street was adjacent to the Hudson Tubes. There, trains ran to New Jersey, where an estimated 90% of his customers lived. In 1971, he opened his largest store ever in Paramus, N.J., and began more aggressively moving into marked-down brand-name suits. He also added women's wear.

To support his expansion plans, Mr. Syms started advertising on the radio, reading the scripts himself. The first television ad came in 1974, and it was Mr. Syms who took credit for the trademark "educated consumer" phrase. It replaced an earlier slogan, "Unbelievable Syms!"

As his business expanded, Mr. Syms cut deals with big European labels such as Armani and Brioni to buy their excess production, and would then sell it at something close to wholesale.

In the early days, Syms clerks would snip the designer label out of the suit before handing it over to customers. Stores were kept spartan, with black walls and plain racks weighed down with huge amounts of merchandise.

The formula worked, and Syms expanded in the 1970s and went public in 1983. Ms. Syms succeeded her father as CEO in 1998. This year, Ms. Syms led Syms Corp. in the takeover of retailer Filene's Basement. Altogether, Syms now operates 52 stores.

One fan was New York Mayor Edward Koch, who has shopped at Syms since the 1960s. "I just bought two jackets there," Mr. Koch said in an interview. "They're both big bargains."

Who's At The Controls?

A giant web of 15,000 video-surveillance cameras has spread across Chicago, aiding police in the pursuit of criminals but raising fears that the City of Big Shoulders is becoming the City of Big Brother.

While many police forces are boosting video monitoring, video-surveillance experts believe Chicago has gone further than any other U.S. city in merging computer and video technology to police the streets. The networked system is also unusual because of its scope and the integration of nonpolice cameras.

The city links the 1,500 cameras that police have placed in trouble spots with thousands more—police won't say how many—that have been installed by other government agencies and the private sector in city buses, businesses, public schools, subway stations, housing projects and elsewhere. Even home owners can contribute camera feeds.

The system is too vast for real-time monitoring by police staffers. But each time a citizen makes an emergency call, which happens about 15,000 times a day, the system identifies the caller's location and instantly puts a video feed from the nearest camera up on a screen to the left of the emergency operator's main terminal. The feeds, including ones that weren't viewed in real time, can be accessed for possible evidence in criminal cases.

Chicago police started installing highly visible cameras topped by flashing blue lights back in 2003. Many were placed at locations where residents had complained about drug-dealing, and the city later said that crime decreased up to 30% in areas with cameras. But some critics complained that the cameras just pushed drug dealers to nearby street corners.

Even if cameras don't prevent crimes, "prosecution is much quicker," said Fredrik Nilsson, general manager of Axis North America, a unit of a Swedish company that makes the digital cameras used in Chicago. "When people face recorded videos, they don't go through court trials."

From the Daily Mail.

Britain's extraordinary march towards a surveillance state is revealed today by shocking new figures. They show that one request is made every minute for officials to spy on someone's phone records or email accounts. The number of Big Brother snooping missions by police, town halls and other public bodies has soared by 44 per cent in two years.

Last year there were 504,073 new cases - an average of 1,381 a day. It is the equivalent of one adult in 78 coming under state-sanctioned surveillance. The snoopers are using a law originally aimed at terror suspects. But their targets include people suspected of storing petrol without a licence and bringing a dog into the country without quarantining it.

Everybody's doing it...

A total of 653 state bodies, including 474 local councils, are allowed to use its surveillance powers. ...... Other bodies authorised to carry out surveillance include the Financial Services Authority, the Ambulance Service, fire authorities and prison governors.

They are not allowed to find out the content of phone calls and emails, but can access details of when and to whom they were made or sent. People who are found to have done no wrong have no right to know they were snooped on

Sarah Palin's $150,000 + Fashion Transformation

Lisa A. Kline, 47, is the wardrobe consultant who made an Alaska hockey mom-turned-governor named Sarah Palin into chic vice-presidential material for the Republican National Convention in September 2008, and in doing so inadvertently set off a furor.

“Wardrobegate,” as Ms. Kline’s $150,000-plus fashion transformation became known, undermined Ms. Palin’s carefully crafted homespun image when the news broke two weeks before the election.

The Republican National Committee spent $75,062 at Neiman Marcus and $49,425 at Saks Fifth Avenue in September for Ms. Palin and her family.Advisers to Ms. Palin said that the purchases — which totaled about $150,000 and were classified as “campaign accessories” — were made on the fly after Ms. Palin, the governor of Alaska, was chosen as the Republican vice-presidential candidate on Aug. 29 and needed new clothes to match climates across the 50 states.

Details about pricey designer clothes and a whirlwind $75,062 trip to Neiman Marcus outraged both Democrats and Republicans. In her new memoir, “Going Rogue,” Ms. Palin is still trying to distance herself from the incident.

As for her fee of $54,900, reported in campaign filings, it also covered an assistant and some expenses. She said the high fee was justified because styling the Palins was a last-minute holiday weekend assignment that had Ms. Kline sleeping no more than a few hours at a time. “It’s very hard to put a figure on a 24-hour day,” she said.

On the afternoon of Aug. 29, 2008, Ms. Kline fielded a surprise phone call: Was she available to dress Sarah Palin for the Republican National Convention, which was to begin three days later on Labor Day? Then, Ms. Kline said she was asked to provide clothes for the entire Palin family, including the candidate’s husband, Todd; their sons Track and Trig, the infant; and daughters Bristol, who was pregnant, Willow and Piper. Levi Johnston, Bristol’s then-boyfriend, was also included.

With less than 24 hours before the Palins’ national debut on the tarmac, it was decided that the luxury retailer Neiman Marcus, which has a store in Minneapolis, offered the best available selection for the circumstances. Arrangements were made for a private early-morning trip.

Neiman Marcus opened for Ms. Kline and her assistant at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, she said, and the two split up and spent a rushed 90 minutes or so gathering what they needed. According to election filings, more than $130,000 of clothing charges from New York and Minneapolis was picked up by a Republican consultant, Jeff Larson, who was reimbursed by the Republican National Committee.)

B&H Photo's 2009 Point-and-Shoot Buyer's Guide

B&H Photo reviews latest point-and-shoot digicams – both simple and sophisticated - that slip easily into your pocket. As for 'simple', they're all easy to use, and if you're more of a hands-on shooter, many have advanced DSLR-like functionality including full manual control. Some of these palm-sized capture devices are among the most innovative cameras out there these days. There are point-and-shoot cameras you can dive with, ski with, shoot 10-frames-per-second with, HD 1080p video, and with the turn of a dial shoot panoramic images up to 256° wide. B & H's 2009 Point-and-Shoot Buyer's Guide is designed to narrow the field and enable you to choose the best camera for your needs by discussing these cameras in terms of special attributes, e.g., touch screens, slim-profile, water-proof, focal-range, etc. Resolving Power Resolving power, i.e. the pixel-count, is not as big a deal as it used to be as manufacturers are recognizing the fact fewer but-larger-pixels produce 'better', i.e., fuller-toned and natural looking pictures compared to more-but-tinier pixels. (Resolving power that lacketh flesh on the bone maketh not a hearty broth.) A good case in point is the Canon PowerShot G11, which contains about a third fewer (but larger) pixels than its predecessor, the 14.7Mp PowerShot G10, without compromising image quality. If anything, the 10.2Mp PowerShot G11 produces images that have proved to be fuller-toned compared to the G10 despite the so-called 'loss of resolving power'. The bottom line is digicams containing anywhere from 8 to 12-megapixels should prove to be more-than-sufficient to satisfy your imaging needs. LCD Screens Viewfinders are becoming increasingly rare in point-and-shoot digicams leaving the camera's LCD as our sole method of viewing and composing pictures and video. The good news is the quality of LCD screens has vastly improved over the past few years, and most point-and-shoot digicams feature LCDs that on average measure about 3" diagonally, with smaller screens measuring in on average at a still-decent 2.5", and larger screen measuring in at a grander 3.5" across. The resolving powers of LCD screens have also improved as of late. Not long ago most LCD screens contained about 230,000 pixels, or dots. Many current cameras sport from 460,000 to upwards of 920,000 dots of resolving power, which is easier on the eyes and far superior when it comes to fine-focusing, especially in manual focus mode. Touchscreen LCDs are becoming increasingly popular in point-and-shoot cameras, and by incorporating the camera controls camera manufacturers have been able to further decrease camera sizes while maintaining larger LCD sizes. Nikon's CoolPix S70 sports a 3.5" Touch Panel OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) that features tap-activated iPod-like controls. Pictures can be scrolled by sweeping your finger across the screen, or zoomed in and out of by pinching or expanding your fingertips across the LCD. Nikon’s CoolPix S70 Sony Cyber-shot DCS T90 Other cameras featuring touchscreen displays include the Sony Cyber-shot DCS T90, which features a 12.1Mp sensor, a 4x Carl Zeiss zoom lens, up to ISO 3200 imaging, and HDTV compatibility. The T90 is available in black, blue, silver, and pink. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX580 features a 3" touchscreen LCD with AF/AE tracking controls, as well as a 12-1Mp sensor, burst-rates of up to 10fps, and a 5x (25-125mm equivalent) Leica-designed zoom lens. The DMC-FX580 is available in a choice of black or silver. Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX580 PowerShot SD980 IS Canon offers touchscreen functionality in the PowerShot SD980 IS (silver, blue, purple, and gold). Along with its 3" touchscreen display, the SD980 features a 12.1Mp sensor, a 5x zoom, and optical image stabilization. Samsung outdoes the competition by offering not one, but two LCD screens on its Samsung DualView TL225), which in addition to a rear-mounted 3.5" touchscreen, also features a 1.5" front LCD, to take the guesswork out of self-portraiture. The TL225, which is available in purple and orange, has a 12.2Mp imaging sensor, can be tweaked up to ISO 3200. It also shoots HD video and has a 4.6x Schneider-Kreuznach zoom lens. Into 'thin'? The Samsung DualView TL225 measures in at a svelte 0.7" thick. (See below for other slim-profile digicams) Samsung DualView TL220 Vivitar’s Vivicam 8025 For those seeking an economical (under $70) touchscreen enhanced P&S digicam, have a look-see at Vivitar's Vivicam 8025, which along with an 8.1Mp sensor, features a fixed 7.45mm lens (38mm equivalent w/ 8x digital zoom), and video recording (640x480 @ 30fps). The Vivicam 8025 recharges via your computer's USB port. Optics Most pocket-sized digicams contain 3x-5x zoom lenses with equivalent focal length ranges that typically go from a modest 35-105mm to a broader 28-140mm. In most cases they're comparable to the kit lenses that come with entry-level DSLRs. These focal ranges are fine for most folks, but there are those who always want something more in the way of longer, wider, or both. A good example of squeezing 'more lens' into a pocket-sized package is Canon's PowerShot SX200, which contains a 12x zoom lens with an equivalent focal length range of 28-336mm. Even with Canon's 4-stop image stabilization system you might want to go easy on the Starbucks if you plan on shooting hand-held at the telephoto end of this puppy. The Canon SX200 contains a 12.1Mp sensor, a DIGIC 4 image processor, and is available in a choice of black, blue, and red. Canon’s PowerShot SX200 PowerShot SD980 IS Lens speed is another area that might be important to you. Most P&S digicams have lenses that are modestly fast, typically f3.5 at the wide end and downhill from there as you zoom to the long end of the focal range, which can be problematic when shooting under less-than-sunny skies. There are exceptions to this rule, and among them are the Canon PowerShot S90 and Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3, which is available in silver & black. Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 Both of these little honeys have lenses that open up to a speedy f/2 at the wide end of their respective focal ranges (28mm equivalent for the Canon S90 and an impressively wider (and Leica-designed) 24mm equivalent with the Panasonic LX3). The Canon PowerShot S90 can be described as a 'sports coupe' version of Canon's very popular G11 (see Uber-Digicams below), as it shares the same imaging sensor and other G11 attributes in a smaller, svelte package. A particularly cool feature found on the S90 is the Custom Control Wheel, which is located around the base of the lens and allows you to make adjustments to focus, exposure, ISO, zoom, and white balance settings quickly and easily. Leica D-LUX 4 For those into sexy red badges, the Leica D-LUX 4 is a kissing cousin of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3, but with upgraded firmware, a more neutral color palette, and a 2-year warranty in place of the standard 1-year warranty that comes with the Panasonic LX3 (and every other camera mentioned in this guide). FujiFilm FinePix F200EXR Another camera well suited for low-light shooting is the FujiFilm FinePix F200EXR, which features ISO sensitivity levels up to 12,800, thanks in part to the camera's 12Mp, wide dynamic Super CCD EXR imaging sensor. The F200EXR also features a 28- 140mm equivalent Fujinon lens, a choice of film simulation modes, a 3" LCD, FujiFilm Face Detection 3.0, and a Dual Image Stabilization system. The FujiFilm FinePix F200EXR accepts both xD and SD/SDHC memory cards. Looking for Something Really Thin? All point-and-shoot digicams can be described as 'small'. And while most point-and-shoot digicams are quite pocketable, not all can be described as being thin-thin. Using 0.75" as our 'thin' cutoff point, Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-TX1-series cameras, which are available in Blue, Pink, Gray and Silver, are only 0.64" thick (thin?). Along with a true 10 frames-per-second burst mode (at full-resolution) and a very useful 'Twilight Hand-Held' shooting mode for sharp, flash-free low-light shooting. And like the Sony Cyber-shot HX-1 and Cyber-shot WX-1, the Sony DSC-TX1 features a 'Sweep Panorama' mode for capturing panoramic images of up to184°. Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-TX1-series cameras Casio Exilim EX-S12 Casio is a company long associated with thin cameras. Among their thinner offerings this season is the Casio Exilim EX-FS10, which features a 9.1Mp sensor, 2.5" LCD, 3x zoom, a hi-burst shooting mode, as well as HD video with a slow-motion function. The EX-FS10 measures in at 0.64" and is available in a choice of blue, grey, and red. Also available from Casio is the Casio Exilim EX-S12, 0.58" thin and featuring a 12.1Mp sensor, 2.7" LCD, ISO ratings up to 3200, HD video, and is available in green, pink, black, and silver. Nikon’s CoolPix S220 Nikon's CoolPix S220 (0.7") also makes it into the thin digi-club. Available in a descriptive variety of colors (jet black, plum, aqua green, cobalt blue, magenta, and warm silver), the S220 features a 10Mp sensor, 2.5" LCD, a 4-way VR image stabilization system, and up to an ISO 2000 rating for low-light shooting. Tough & Weatherproof If you think all point-and-shoot digicams are 'weenie' cameras, take a look at Panasonic's Stylus Tough-8000 and Tough-6000 digicams. The 12Mp Stylus Tough-8000 is shock-proof (6.6-feet onto a hard floor), waterproof (down to 33'), crushproof (up to 220lb of pressure), and freeze-proof (down to 14°F). The Tough-8000 is available in (black & silver). Panasonic’s Stylus Tough-8000 Panasonic Stylus Tough-6000 Slightly less bullet-proof but tough none-the-less is the 10Mp Panasonic Stylus Tough-6000, which is available in (blue, white, & yellow). The Tough-6000 is shock-proof from falls of up to 5', waterproof down to 10', and freeze-proof down to 14°F. Both the Tough-6000 & 8000 feature Tap Control that allows you to change exposure and other settings by simply tapping on the top and sides of the camera. Both cameras also feature a 28-102mm equivalent zoom lens. Similarly rugged is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1, which is available in silver, green, and orange. Dunk-able down to a smidgen under 10', droppable from heights a smidgen under 5', and freezable down to 14°F, the 12.1Mp Lumix TS1 features a Leica-designed Vario-Elmar 28-128mm equivalent zoom lens, and 720p HD video (including a built-in video light). Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 Pentax Optio W80 Available in azure blue, gunmetal grey, and red, the Pentax Optio W80 is a spiffily-designed digicam that aside from claiming ISO sensitivity levels up to 6400, is waterproof down to 16', survive drops from up to 3' from the ground, and temperatures ranging from 14°F to 104°F. The lens on the Optio W80 is a 28-140mm equivalent, and along with high quality still images, the Optio W80 can capture 720p HD video with equal ease. The Canon PowerShot D10 looks like a 1950's bathysphere, which is appropriate considering it's waterproof down to 33 (10 m)', shockproof from 4' falls, and will operate in a temperature range 14 - 104°F. The 12.1Mp D10's 3x zoom has the equivalent range of 38 – 114mm, and does an excellent job of grabbing snapshots regardless of how nasty it is outside. Canon PowerShot D10 Fujifilm FinePix Z33WP Not much larger than a small tin of Altoids the Fujifilm FinePix Z33WP is a sleek little number with a 10Mp sensor, a bright 2.7" LCD, and a 3x (35-105mm equivalent) zoom tucked behind a waterproof glass port. Available in green, pink, and black, the FinePix Z33WP is waterproof down to a we bit under 10' (3 m), has Advanced Face Detection, in-camera editing, and ISO sensitivity up to 1600. Uber-Digicams Some of the point-and-shoots we sell go well beyond the call of duty regarding our expectations of what a 'simple' camera should look like and perform like. Ask a pro about his or her favorite pocket camera and you're most likely to get Canon's PowerShot G11 for an answer. The PowerShot G11 is the latest G-series camera from Canon, and like it's predecessors, it's a true 'photographer's camera', complete with analog control dials, a sharp 28-140mm equivalent zoom, RAW and/or JPEG capture, a 2.8" swivel screen for shooting at awkward camera angles, an E-TTL hot-shoe, and a hefty, solid feel. Canon’s PowerShot G11 Nikon CoolPix P6000 Similar in concept is the Nikon CoolPix P6000, which features a 13.5Mp sensor, up to ISO 6400, RAW and/or JPEG capture, wired network connectivity, GPS capability, and a 28-112mm equivalent lens wrapped inside a tough exterior package. Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-WX1 One camera that has garnered an awful lot of attention is Sony's Cyber-shot DSC-WX1. For a camera the size of a credit card and only 0.78" (20mm) thick, the WX1 packs the sort of features that make you sit back and say 'whew! The list starts off with a very capable rear-illuminated Exmor 'R' imaging sensor, which can capture full-size stills at up to 10 frames-per-second as well as MPEG4 video. The lens, a 24-120mm equivalent Sony G-series optic, does a fine job covering the basic pocket-camera needs. But if the angle-of-view of the 24mm end of the zoom lens isn't enough for you, flip the WX1 into Sweep Panorama mode and the camera quickly captures up to 100 individual images as you 'sweep' it across the scene and quickly stitches them together into a single, truly awesome 256° panoramic image. And if flash-free low-light imaging is your thing, the WX1's Hand-Held Twilight mode quickly captures 6 images, samples them, and combines the sharpest, best details within each image and combines them in-camera as a single sharp, well exposed image. Nikon CoolPix S1000pj, Lastly, we'd like to present this year's winner of the prestigious Swiss Army Knife School of Thought Award, the Nikon CoolPix S1000pj, a digicam that not only captures high quality stills and video, but with the flip of a switch can project your stills and video moments after capturing them. The S1000pj's built-in projector can project sharp images up to 40" across at from a distance of about 5.5' away. And yes, the pictures are sharp and depending on the ambient light levels, easily viewable (as is true with all projection systems). The CoolPix S1000pj also features a slew of in-camera image editing tools and despite everything this little bugger can do, still slips neatly into your coat pocket.