iPod and TFT birthday happiness!

Jen managed to pull a bunch of friends and family together for a belated birthday (too many people couldn't make it if we had held the party on Easter weekend, and my birthday was Good Friday this year). She also convinced them to pool their cash and get two sweet mega-gifts. The Philips 170B5CS flat panel display that I'd been lusting after, and an iPod Mini (4GB) that I've been wanting but would never have bought myself. The iPod was a snap to set up on Bill's Mini, and later this week I'll set it to sync contact and calendar info to the iBook. The Monitor is very crisp. It worked great with my desktops right out of the box. To get it working well with iBook took some time with Apple's calibration program, because the iBook can't generate the full resolution of the monitor. On flat panels, this makes text look rather fuzzy. The calibration program helped get the color right, and adjust the brightness. For some reason, this gives the illusion of less fuzzy text and the result is quite readable.

And there was much rejoicing... I'll be sending Thank You's within two weeks (school is kicking my behind), but if you're reading this, chipped in, and never receive a thank you... THANK YOU.

Jen has some pictures up somewhere in the gallery. If I get a chance, I'll find them and link them in here directly.