Camcorders again
 

How low is low light? How often do you find yourself shooting in low light, and then disappointed by the lower quality?

Camcorders again
 

I'm ignoring your admonition--why not use the points for amazon gift cards (or Best Buy or Circuit City) and get whatever one you want?

Sticking with one of the proposed, for example, the Pana miniDV seems to be the PV-GS300 (link: http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-PV-G...e=UTF8&s=photo ), $507.14 from Amazon, which would only cost 63,000 points and leave you with enough money to buy a couple of tapes, too.

The Pana DVD is probably the VDR-D200 ($447.10/54000 points on Amazon), which seems to have been superceded by the VDR-D300, which is a 3CCD like the other Pana (ie it has three image sensors each the same size as the VDR-D200).

Hopefully helpful even tho I ignored part of your request. We have a Sony miniDV which we have been happy with in its limited use. The Sony models were a little harder to figure out, so I gave up. We've been really happy with our Lumix, so we'd probably go Pana if we were in the market now.

Camcorders again
 

It's fine in a room at night with most of the lights on. The real issue is white balance.

But if most of the lights are off, it comes out pretty dark.

Camcorders again
 

Cletus, you're the greatest. Thank you for ignoring my admonition and teaching me this points maximizing strategery!

Camcorders again
 

No problem. I really don't want to do the work on my desk. Actually, I was surprised at how close the spread was--I mostly have Amex points and their stuff is usually 30-50% higher than the gift cards on points/dollar. I thought the 10% is pretty good.

Make sure you check Best Buy and Circuit City for prices, too, b/c those cards have more favorable point exchange rates than Amazon, even though you'll have to pay sales tax.

Nintendo
 

Video of the new Nintendo Wii

I've always used body English with the controller, now it actually does something.

Avast, ye scurvey dogs
 

So, I finally broke down and got a 20-inch iMac to replace the aging Thinkpad with dial-up service. Setting it up last night, and found, thanks to the wonders of the modern wireless world, that I was pirating internet access from some neighbor or another. I was a bit surprised, as we live in a hilly neighborhood with lots of big trees and a fair amount of space between houses. But anyway. Ethics aside, are there reasons I shouldn't be taking advantage of this (i.e., risks to my hardware or information)?

Avast, ye scurvey dogs
 

I think that they cannot access anything but your public folder but you can probably wipe the PC's hard drive.

Also, you cannot connect to any computers and/or printers also on your wireless network.

Seriously at one point, I was unable to print to the color printer attached to my son's mac mini. I plugged and unplugged, tested reconfigured and the thing still had disappeared as a printer choice from my laptop. Then I realized that he had been inadvertently signed onto a neighbor's wireless network for more than a week.

Avast, ye scurvey dogs
 

Do you have your own internet access? Why not use it?

I wouldn't rely on a neighbor forever. I would selectively use it--e.g., downloading porn and pirated mp3s.

And, as secure as a mac is, if you're on their network and they're sophisticated, they might be able to gain access to your files. On the other hand, if there network is that insecure, they're probably not a hacker.

Avast, ye scurvey dogs
 

We've been living under a rock (a rock called "dial-up internet access"). Plan is/was to get the new computer and then get either DSL or cable. Still the plan, but I guess we now have more time to research our options.

Avast, ye scurvey dogs
 

I was not aware that dial-up internet access was still available. How much do they charge for that these days?

Avast, ye scurvey dogs
 

I think we pay like $20/mo for Earthlink dial-up. We've sort of been on the "we'll go broadband when we get a new computer" path. And now we've got the new computer, so...

Avast, ye scurvey dogs
 

At least around here DSL is less than most dialup, at least at the low end. If you want higher than the basic speed (which is 10X dialup), you pay more.

I'd just suck it up and move on. "Dude, get your own internet"

Avast, ye scurvey dogs
 

That's the plan. DSL here is a bit more than dial-up, but not that much. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't causing any problems by "borrowing" access while we're waiting for the DSL guy.

Document management systems
 

Currently, my firm has no document management system. I am serious. Files are stored on hard drives whever the saver feels like saving. The PCs are networked but there is no systematic approach to anything and no one is required, taught or encouraged to save anything in any particular place. I have tried to bring this up for years but the response I get when I am looking for a brief to remand is "Just ask around."

Now, however, I have a big person's ear for like six minutes so I put these questions to you:

What document management systems do you guys use?

Is there a system that will work symbiotically with an imaging system?