I just spent a little more time on the netflix site, and I agree that the quality of the downloadable stuff isn't spelled out clearly. I have comcast cable and they have some SD and HD movies that are truly on demand and start pretty much right when you select them. There will be a delay in downloading content off the netflix site, it seems like it could be 10-15 minutes. Not sure of that though. The netflix print, to paraphrase, says something along the lines of "the quality of your movie will depend on the speed of your internet connection. At 3mps, the quality will approach that of a DVD." I have a fast connection so I should get the best they have to offer. But that tells me it won't be HD (1080 or 720), and that it may barely be DVD (480). So yes, I take from that that the downloadable stuff on Netflix isn't HD. And with a fast connection you just might get DVD, which is 480. What's standard-def TV, something like 320, right? And VHS tapes were 240? I guess the good news for me is that my projector has a pretty decent upconverter in it, but the question begs as to how well it can upconvert what I download from netflix. A plus for me is that if the picture quality isn't great at 133", I can choke the projector down to display a smaller picture and improve quality. There are a variety of boxes you can use to download content from netflx. Personally if I was going to get a box I'd probably go for a blu ray player. But my wife wants to be able to also play games for the kids, so we'll probably go with PS3 or Xbox, more likely xbox. She wants to get dance dance revolution for my daughter! I don't have a real good feel for just what movies netflix has available for download. They claim 12000 out of their offerings of 100000. We were very happy with netflix when we just used them for discs years ago. We switched to blockbuster more for the kids, they liked being able to go into the store and pick up a DVD (a couple free in-store pickups per month) on their way home when they were having friends over. But blockbuster has gotten away from that feature, and blockbuster always seems to send discs in the que out of order. Makes it tough when you're watching a series. So I guess what it comes down to is that we're changing back to netflix for the DVDs via snailmail. At this time we look at the downloadable content as bonus stuff, and an excuse to get an xbox, and by getting an xbox it will allow us to watch bluray and work on our dance steps via DDR. One big slippery slope! But I do have a bit more head scratching to do...

cawfeegirl: Yes, Cawfeegirl, you can have your cake and eat it too! You'll need either a miniDVI-to-HDMI adapter ($6.94), or a DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter ($8.55), both available from monoprice.com, depending on which model Mac you have (older iMacs have miniDVI ports; new MacMinis have both; newest iMacs have DisplayPort only). With the proper adapter, you can connect a MacMini to any HDMI-capable display or TV. I actually misspoke in my earlier post--the preference would be to have a TV with two HDMI inputs and use one for your MacMini, and one for your CATV set-top box. Although a VGA input would also work (with the appropriate adapter), HDMI is capable of addressing higher resolutions than VGA, and is therefore preferred. When connected via HDMI, Macs typically automatically scale their display output to your TV's native aspect ratio and resolution (everything will look "right" without any hassle). dcwesley: Congrats! Many PC manufacturers are now making compact, all-in-one computers these days, some, even with touchscreens (which Apple does not yet offer). Many all-in-one, Windows-based PCs also offer significant savings over their pricier Apple counterparts.

Yes, I believe you can export the data or print it out. I have worked several days with it, and it is still the fastest way to catalog that I have ever used. I also sent for the little electronic bar code reader ($15) which will make entry of any recent publication a breeeze: just scan and click! Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on my mood) most of my books (and I have 6,000+ of them) are much older so no bar code, or even ISBN, to rely on. I'm finding that I have to hand enter the data on those books. So it's a wash as far as saving time there. One can upload certain formats of catalog data (not mine, alas) so if you've already started you may ahead of the game. If you have less than 200 items, so you can use the site for free. More than that, it's $10/year to continue uploading or $25 for a lifetime of uploads. Once I get all my backlog done it should be easy to keep it updated. I'm still loving it, though spending waaay too much playing with my books while I'm at it. Molly~

Just a update. I came up to Tahoe for a few days to see my daughter. She got two days off work, after working 12 hours/day for thirteen days straight. Her summer is going great. The kitchen is running smoothly. She's been learning how to manage her kitchen staff, 10 people including two assistant supervisors and a bunch of junior cooks. Lots of training, teaching, correcting, encouraging, and now doing job reviews and planning staffing for next summer. She's also been writing up recipes and procedures, filling out employee evaluations, and other administrative stuff. Along the way they've had to deal with equipment breaking down, water shortages, a small forest fire that closed the road and interrupted food delivery for awhile, and other interesting aspects of cooking in the high mountains. The camper feedback on the food has been very good. People have told me the meals have been the best they've ever had in years of coming to camp. She's been asked for her recipes several times. (As an aside, I think they need to change their policies for accommodating special dietary requests. This being a Berkeley camp, families are always requesting that their meals for the week be gluten free, dairy free, meat free, nut free, kosher, vegan, soy free, low fat, low carb, without certain spices, no raw vegetables, no garlic or onions, no peppers, no tomatoes, and on and on - the list of idiosyncratic restrictions seems endless. Right now the camp kitchen accommodates every request, which means they have to improvise a special variant or two of the meal, for one or more individual campers, almost every day. I told her they need to develop a standard list of alternative dishes using food that they will stock all the time and offer those and only those, instead of trying to create bespoke versions of every meal served during the week. For example, they should always be able to accommodate vegetarians or gluten intolerants or lactose intolerant, but I don't think a camper should be able to present any arbitrary list of restrictions and always expect to be accommodated. This isn't a restaurant, it is a summer camp.) On her first day off, we drove to Reno and found a restaurant supply store, and I bought a bunch of little stuff they need. Things like more aprons and oven mitts, egg slicers, thermometers, etc. My daughter was like a kid in a candy store. The camp kitchen needs a lot of other equipment, but my "helpful dad" budget does not extend to a commercial mixer (the kids are making dough by hand because they only have one Kitchen-Aid for 140 people), a Robot Coupe (they chop everything by hand, no food processor), a commercial rice maker, etc. The kitchen does get improved a little every year. Maybe next summer they will actually have their new ovens installed. Can you imagine feeding 140 people a day with just one large flat top, four burners, one small oven, and one charbroiler? At the former camp in Yosemite that burned in the big forest fire of 2013, the kitchen was well equipped. At this camp in Tahoe, the kitchen is nowhere as good. I've been vagabonding while I'm here. The first night I put my sleeping bag on the couch on the deck of the tent cabin that my daughter shares with some other girls. That was comfortable enough but I am a bit appalled at how messy four teenaged girls can be. The next night my daughter and I slept on the beach at Lake Tahoe, outside a friend's house. We watched the local bear splashing through the water about 70 feet away, then fell asleep to a fantastic lightning storm on the other side of the lake. Pictures below. Tonight I'm borrowing that friend's tent cabin, so I'm slightly less on guard about the local bear. He has never threatened anyone, in the five years that he's been living in this grove by the lake, and I've been within 40 feet of him a few times, but you still have to make sure you don't have food in your car or in your sleeping bag. Well, that's it for now. It might rain tonight, so I'm glad my sleeping bag isn't on the beach.