The Tak Team Blog

Television or TV as we abbreviate it to is a well-known used tele-communications procedure for transporting and delivering moving images and audio sound, or as we more typically know it as, telly channels. Commercially available since the nineteen thirty’s the television set has developed into being a frequently used household communications machine in homes & businesses, principally as an avenue of amusement and news bulletins. From the beginning of the 1970s video recording on Video Cassette Recording tapes and later, digital media systems for instance DVD’s, have facilitated in allowing the telly to be used to look at pre-taped sci-fi TV and other programmes. Search the Digital Direct website for superb savings on cheap digital flat screen TV’s.

Television products are built out of various parts so a screen that does not have an internal tuner to get the broadcast signals is dubbed a monitor rather than a TV. Now the future is here, tellies have moved on to a great extent & technology has advanced, tellies currently are created to acquire several telly broadcasts or video configurations, like that of high definition televisions commonly referred to as HDTV. At the beginning when High-Definition Televisions were first available to buy they were very steep to buy, although, in the present day its achievable to come upon low-priced TV’s from most supermarkets. Such as a thirty seven inch LCD TV may well have a long time ago have dented your wallet by one thousand pounds it is at present viable to get 1 up for a good deal less than this, you will see that most Plasma widescreens TV’s have reduced greatly in value compared to a couple years ago.

There are two breed of television recently, plasma and LCD both are exceptionally alike however, noticeably contradictory at the same time. Plasma is a category of flat panel screen that you will normally only observe on large telly screens, which effectively means you will not see plasma tellies in something smaller than a 37″. Plasma displays in there elementary form are just gas cylinders. You then have LCD screens that you can uncover in numerous different dimensions & they can too be used as PC monitors.

They may seem like an odd combination, but the iPod photo could be the perfect choice for anyone who wants to view photo slideshows on an HDTV.

The iPod photo can store thousands of digital photos, and syncs with a Mac or PC via iTunes. It will read any slideshows you’ve created in iPhoto on a Mac or Photoshop Album on a PC and copy them to the iPod. Alternatively you can tell it to copy a folder full of images from your hard drive as a slideshow.

Also, with the addition of an optional camera connector($29), you can copy photos directly from a digital camera and automatically create a slideshow from them on the iPod photo. All slideshows can be set to music.

To connect the iPod photo to an HDTV you’ll need to first make sure that your HDTV has composite video and audio inputs and then purchase the iPod photo AV cable ($19) from Apple. Connect the iPod to your TV, select the appropriate input and hey presto, your slideshow can be seen in beautiful, bright widescreen glory on your HDTV.

It’s worth bearing a few things in mind when creating slideshows for HDTV. First of all, the screen of an HDTV set has an aspect ratio of 16:9 (length: height) so if you size your photos with this aspect ratio you’ll be able to fill the screen without cropping the photo or seeing ugly black space around it. Secondly, the resolution required for optimal viewing on HDTV at full screen is less than that needed for printing even an A4 image. So if you only intend viewing your photos on-screen, whether on your computer or HDTV, you can save space on your iPod photo by reducing the capture resolution on your digital camera. If you set it at three mega-pixels, that will be enough to allow you to crop photos to the correct aspect ratio and still view them at the highest possible quality on an HDTV.

Of course, the iPod photo can store more than just photographs. Anything that can be saved as an image file, such as JPEG, can be included in a slideshow, so you could even use it to carry around business presentations which can be viewed by anyone with access to a TV or projector.

About the Author

Robert Armstrong is a contributor to The HDTV Tuner - a guide to the kit, the technology and the programming on HDTV.

Sic Bo originated in ancient China and means literally “dice
pair”, although the game is actually played with three dice! The
game is played throughout Southeast Asia, Korea, China and
increasingly in Western casinos. Sic Bo is an easy game to play,
the object being to bet on the outcome of a role of the three
dice, to include combinations of any two or three of the dice,
single numbers, two of a kind or three of a kind.

The game is played on a table that illustrates the 50
permissible bets in pictorial form and with their associated
payout. Sic Bo payouts range from 180:1 for a specific triple,
to 1:1 for betting on the value of just one dice. The dice are
usually tumbled in a basket by the dealer, who will enter the
results on to the table, and then light up the winning
combinations. The dealer pays out the lucky winners and removes
the unsuccessful bets.

The first and most straight forward betting option in Sic Bo is
to bet on any one number of the numbers 1 to 6 on a dice, and if
that number comes up on any one of the three dice rolled, then
the bet is paid out at evens, if two number come up then the
payout is 2:1 and if all three dice feature the chosen number
the payout is 3:1. A player can also select a pair of numbers
for example 2 and 4 to come up on any two of the dice, and if
successful the payout is 5:1.

A bet can be placed on the total of the three dice from 4 to 17
inclusive. The odds vary for this bet depending upon the total
bet. “Small bets” refer to a wager that the total of the three
dice will be between 4 and 10 (although this does not payout for
triple 1, 2 or 3), whilst “Big bets” require the total of the
three dice to be between 11 and 17 (excluding triple 4 and 5);
both these latter popular bets pay out 1:1.

A specific triple requires all three of the dice to show the
selected triple e.g. 3 x 3, and this pays out the maximum of
180:1. A variant of this, at the lower payout of 30:1, is the
any triple bet that pays out for any of the six possible
triples. A specific double bet pays out 10:1 if any two dice
match the number that has been wagered.

How many seconds does it take for a collision to happen? How
many seconds does it take for you to stop your bike after
applying your brakes?

Time is of the essence. In fact, it is so precious that it can
be treated as a controlling factor during a possible collision.
Five seconds delay may mean taking an innocent life. Two seconds
behind and you lose a sister. That’s how significant time is. It
can mean serious aftermath like death. So mind you, are you not
going to compromise?

Stepping on the brakes to stop it takes mastery. To do this, we
must first know its fundamentals. The first is - be alert all
the time. How can you stop when you do not have any idea what
the need is for? The second is reflexes. Quick wit and the
ability to react and decide at a certain situation can make a
great difference. Lastly, skill is as important as the two
others. You must have the skill to manuever the brakes. How to
do it is a learned skill. Practice is therefore indispensable to
attain mastery of it.

Rules of thumb have been developed by the Traffic Engineers.
They have found out that the time varies and is dependent on
whether the street surface is dry or wet. When it is dry, a
person can safaly decelerate at the rate of 15 feet per second
per second (fpsps). It means that an averave person can slow
down at this this rate withut any likelihood that they will lose
their control in the process. If the street surface is wet, an
average person can decelerate at 10 fpsps. This is safely
attainable by almost anyone.

The more effective your braking is, the faster the stop and the
lesser the distance traveled can be. Motorcycles are lighter
than other automobile. Thus, a skillful rider can pretty well
adjust to a probable accident compared to a car driver.

With lots of practice, braking skills can be developed and
mastered up to a point that a driver can already achieve
deceleration rates in excess of 20 fpsps. It means stopping and
avoiding accident on time. No breaking, just braking. Isn’t it
amazing?!

I’ve just discovered something amazing. The Roundup, my bi-weekly
ezine, has a love life! As a matter of fact, it appears to be doing much
better than I am in that respect. You see, The Roundup regularly receives
email messages sent to its subscription address. The last one started,
“Hi, It’s been awhile since we talked. I’m wondering if you’ve been
thinking about our last conversation….”

Oh, Roundup, you little devil you! Have you been sneaking around
behind my back with other ezines?

It’s not just The Roundup that I have to worry about. I also have a number
of autoresponders that I use. In case anyone doesn’t understand the term
“autoresponder,” it’s an automated email address. When you send a blank
email to an autoresponder, the technology automatically sends you a
pre-written message. I use autoresponders on my web site to give visitors
samples of my freely distributed articles. Well, danged if my autoresponders
aren’t carrying on illicit affairs behind my back as well. One of them is
apparently involved with the same sender whose wanton behavior with
The Roundup is causing me so much concern. This autoresponder
receives the identical email message about remembering previous
conversations. Jeesh, I could have a major war on my hands if this keeps
up. All I need is for the Roundup to find out about the autoresponder,
and then what?

Oh, wait! A new turn of events! The Roundup just received an email
with “Get Your Share of E-Z Money” in the subject line. This oughtta
give it a competitive edge. As far as I know, the autoresponder is stone,
cold broke. It’ll be no match for the soon-to-be stinking rich Roundup.

Speaking of autoresponders, another one of mine — and I am embarrassed
about this — has apparently been inviting communication with Heather,
a gorgeous 19 year old who has to take nude pictures of herself to pay her
college tuition. Well, Heather, I want you to understand something. My
autoresponder does not have its own credit card. ‘Nuff said? But you might
try The Roundup. It’ll soon be making lots of E-Z Money!

But this email intrigue continues. A new message just came in addressed
to “Undisclosed Recipients.” The subject says “Hello, how have you
been?33, “
and the body asks whether Undisclosed Recipient is drowning in Credit
Card Debt. Hmmm! I wonder where I should forward this. The Roundup
won’t need it, what with all this E-Z money soon to be coming in, so
maybe I’ll send it to that frisky autoresponder. Perhaps when it gets rid
of its existing credit card debt, it can get a charge card and help Heather
get her education. I’m sure it’ll be only two or three seconds before I
receive another email offering sure-fire guarantees around getting a credit
card. That’ll come in handy for Heather and Auto.

But wait! This is the last straw! Now my web site is sabotaging me
behind my back. Now as far as I know, and I do know because I
designed the site, it contains a number of resources for business people
and entrepreneurs. But what’s this? I now have an email from a sender
“who has just visited my site and thinks I would be interested in hearing
more about an opportunity involving horses.” Horses? Is my web site
self-generating equine-related content at night when I sleep? Does it
have a dual-personality? This opens up possibilities for a catchy new
logo: “Business by day. At night — oats and hay!”

Such is the allure of my technology’s secret life. But this does answer
one question for me. Now I realize that spammers are actually targeting
ezines, autoresponders, and web sites. It makes a lot of sense. After all,
no actual person would ever fall for this stuff.

June Campbell
“How-to” Booklets, Guides, Templates, & eBooks
-Business proposals
-Business plans,
-Joint Venture Contracts… More!
Visit to Claim Your FREE GIFT!
(http://www.nightcats.com)

Now this is the real American Dream! I’m here to let you know that it is totally possible to lose all the fat you want while eating nothing but junk food. The only hitch is that all the fat you want to lose is going to have to be zero!

Here are some tongue-in-cheek (or burger-in-belly) suggestions for how you can turn even the greasiest, sugariest, most overprocessed calorie bomb into lean, mean diet food.

How is this done? Here’s a hint: it’s all in how you choose to look at the food…

1. Eat donuts instead of solid pastries. You will be saving a tremendous number of calories by eating something with a hole in the middle. You can save upwards of 3 to 5 calories per pastry by doing this. That means if you eat 10 donuts, you’ve saved yourself almost 50 calories! Besides, everyone knows nuts are good for you…

2. French fries can help prevent heart attacks. It is a fact that French people suffer fewer heart attacks and have lower rates of heart disease. French fries are obviously from France, therefore it naturally follows that French fries can prevent heart disease.

3. Pizza is one of the healthiest foods on the planet. There are many reasons for this:

-The bleached flour in the crust sucks up all the grease that
drips down from the toppings, trapping it so you don’t see it
while you’re eating. If you don’t see it when you eat it, it
has no calories.

-It’s round (stay with me here). Because square-shaped foods
have corners, they contain a lot more calories than round
foods. To save even more calories, cut a hole in the center
of the pizza (refer back to #1 for full details).

-The cheese on the pizza is loaded with calcium - even more
than the Tums you’re going to need after eating the whole
thing.

-You can easily reduce your servings without sacrificing
enjoyment. Instead of cutting the pizza into 8 slices, try
cutting it into only 4. You’ve just eaten HALF the number of
slices you ate before! Imagine how many calories you’ll save
by doing that!

-Vegetables covered in grease are still vegetables. Never mind
that all the nutrition has been baked out of them, you’re
still getting you’re recommended daily servings of veggies.

-There is plenty of fiber in the paper that’s stuck to the
bottom of the pizza. Don’t be afraid of it.

4. Beer is the absolute best beverage you can drink when you’re watching your waistline. It helps to put it right out there in front you where you can see it.

5. Look for foods that have air bubbles in them. Examples include chocolate bars, Twinkies (after you suck the cream filling out), soda pop, sponge cake, and cheese puffs. As you know, air has no calories. Look at these foods as the wrapping for a low-calorie, low-fat serving of air.

6. Putting ketchup on anything makes it healthy. Think about it. You’re getting your vegetables in a concentrated paste. It’s like stepping into the future… today!!

7. Here are a number of delicious, zero-calorie foods you may not be aware of:

-Anything eaten while standing has zero calories.
-Anything eaten off somebody else’s plate has zero calories.
-Food sampled for “tasting” purposes during preparation has no calories.
-Food sneaked from someone after you distract them is also calorie-free.
-Anything eaten after the expiration date contains no calories.

8. Eating ice cream can actually help you burn an enormous amount of calories. The key to this lies in its temperature.

Ice cream is very cold. When you eat ice cream, your body must expend energy (a.k.a. calories) to warm it up to your internal body temperature.

When you work through the scientific formulas for heat conversion, you can see you will end up expending approximately 6,000 calories to heat up a small dish of ice cream to body temperature. Drinking ice cold beer with your ice cream amplifies this effect.

These diet tips should have you well on your way towards effectively peeling off pounds of unsightly fat.

Think of me next time you’re eating a pizza with french fries and ketchup on top, dunking your donuts in a glass of cold beer, and shoving down Twinkies (with the filling sucked out) mashed into a dish of nice cold ice cream!

DISCLAIMER: The preceding information is not medical advice and should not be taken as such. If you feel the urge to take any of this “information” seriously, please lie down until the feeling goes away. Thank you.

Nick Nilsson is Vice President of BetterU, Inc., an online exercise, fitness, and personal training company. Check out his latest eBook “The Best Exercises You’ve Never Heard Of” at http://www.thebestexercises.com or visit http://www.fitstep.com. You can contact him at betteru@fitstep.com or subscribe to BetterU News, his fitness newsletter at betterunews@fitstep.com.

Projection televisions have been around for quite some time now.
When first introduced, the images created by these sets were
fuzzy and only viewable at a distance. As great strides in TV
technology have been made, projection TV images have become
sharper and more comparable to those of their competitors.

For people in the market for a large screen TV, either for a
home theatre system or a classroom/boardroom presentation
setting, a Projection TV is the most efficient choice. CRT or
cathode ray tube set’s size maxes out around 40″, and at that
size they are extremely heavy and bulky. Plasma displays are
manageable with larger screen sizes but can be very expensive.
Projection TV technology can create very large screen TVs which
are not only manageable but affordable.

Projection televisions have four main components: a projector,
screen, control panel, and a sound system. There are two main
types of projectors used for these TVs: a transmissive
projector, where light shines through the image forming element
(CRT tube, LCD panel), and a reflective projector in which light
is bounced off of the image forming element. In both projectors,
a lens gets the image from the image forming element, magnifies
the image and focuses it onto a screen. Top of the line
projection TVs use primarily reflective projectors because the
advances in reflective projector technology of late have been
more progressive than those pertaining to transmissive projector
technology.

The image forming elements used in transmissive projectors are
CRTs and LCDs. TVs using a CRT for projection actually have a
small (around 9″ diagonal) television built in. A lens in front
of this small, extremely bright CRT TV magnifies the image and
projects it onto the screen. Three basic configurations are used
in these sets. Transmissive projectors using an LCD for
projection are substantially lighter with a higher resolution
capacity than their CRT counterparts. The LCD panel used in
projection TVs is very similar to that of a full sized LCD only
smaller and brighter. This panel is backlit by a halogen lamp,
the image on the panel is transmitted through a magnifying lens
and projected onto a screen.

Reflective projectors use a small reflective chip to form the
image. When light shines on this chip, it is reflected off of
it, through a projection lens and onto the screen. The most
exciting developments in projection TV technology have been made
with reflective projectors using micro-electromechanical systems
and liquid crystal on silicon.

With advances in LCD and MEM technologies, projectors will
become smaller and form closer competition between projection
TVs and the new plasma displays, in areas such as resolution and
crispness of image detail. A relatively new application of
projection TV technology is, “virtual reality”, in which the
viewer feels surrounded by, or as though he/she is a part of,
the image being viewed. Projection TVs may not be the next big
thing to hit the shelves, but we can be sure they will continue
to be a viable, low priced option when shopping for your new TV.

—————————————– Alan Rhinehart is an
avid media and technology critic. He contributes to various
online publications including “New Technology TV”, a popular
blog covering TV technology and home theater systems. Visit for
more information on LCD
TVs and exclusive Dish Network
deals.

Whether played by a marching band, an orchestra, or a rock
group, there are patriotic tunes that everyone in America finds
familiar, exciting and uplifting. But how much do you know about
how these songs were created? And what do you know about the
people who wrote them?

There are some surprising facts behind all of this glorious
music.

So, fire up the barbecue grill, look up at the fireworks, and
strike up the band as we reveal the secrets behind the most
influential nationalistic musical moments of all time.

“Star Spangled Banner,” Francis Scott Key, 1814. Schoolchildren
in America all learn how Key watched the British bombardment of
Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 and so admired the courage
of the beleaguered American forces that he wrote four stanzas of
“The Star Spangled Banner” (only the first is usually
performed). Key based the melody on an English drinking song
called “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The song has only been the
national anthem since 1931, and there was a strong movement to
replace it with one of the other songs on this list.

“America (My Country ‘Tis of Thee),” Samuel F. Smith, 1832. The
music was composed in the 1700s, sometimes attributed to Henry
Cary. First popular in Great Britain as “God Save the King
(Queen),” the song became bi-continental in 1832. Modern
audiences have been greatly moved by the R&B version by Ray
Charles, a truly wonderful blending of emotion with what
musicians call “the groove.”

“Rally ‘Round the Flag,” George F. Root, 1862. Written for the
Union army and its supporters during the Civil War, the song was
hugely popular in the North. This didn’t prevent Confederate
troops from writing their own lyrics and singing the song
throughout the South.

“When Johnny Comes Marching Home,” Louis Lambert, c. 1863.
Lambert was a pseudonym for Union Army Bandmaster Patrick S.
Gilmore. His lyrics, set to an old Irish folk song, were popular
through the whole Reconstruction Era (1865-1896). It appears in
an extended instrumental version on the soundtrack of Stanley
Kubrick’s film “Dr. Strangelove.”

“Battle Hymn of the Republic,” Julia W. Howe, 1861. Howe is
another lyricist who succeeded by utilizing a pre-existing piece
of music, in this case a camp meeting tune of the 19th century
(which also became “John Brown’s Body”). The profound power of
the words combined with the compelling melody cannot be denied,
and it was sung at the funerals of Winston Churchill, Robert
Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan.

“Overture: 1812,” Petr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 1880. Patriotic music
doesn’t always revolve around the July 4th celebration, or even
refer to the USA. Tchaikovsky got Russian hearts a-pounding with
his “1812 Overture in E Flat Major Op. 49,” written to celebrate
the 70th anniversary of his country’s victory battle during the
Napoleonic Wars.

“Semper Fidelis,” John Philip Sousa, 1889. Popular ever since it
was first performed, the effective and spirited tune takes its
name from the U.S. Marine Corps motto meaning “always faithful”
and is dedicated to the Marines.

“America the Beautiful,” Katharine Lee Bates, 1895, 1904, 1913.
Originally a poem that Bates twice revised after its first
publication in 1885, “America the Beautiful” was sung to several
different melodies. The song associated with it today is
“Materna,” composed by Samuel A. Ward in 1882, but it was also
often performed to the tune of “Auld Lang Syne.”

“Stars and Stripes Forever,” John Philip Sousa, 1896. Composed
on Christmas Day, “The Stars and Stripes Forever” has become the
country’s official march (US Code, Title 36 Chapter 10). Sousa
wrote lyrics to the song, but they are little known today
(sample: “Let martial note in triumph float / And liberty extend
its mighty hand / A flag appears ‘mid thunderous cheers, / The
banner of the Western land.)”

“Yankee Doodle Boy,” George M. Cohan, 1904. “You’re A Grand Old
Flag,” George M. Cohan, 1906. “Over There,” George M. Cohan,
1917. Known as “the man who owned Broadway,” Cohan was a
superstar before the term was coined. While his film biography
is called “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” the title of his first big
tribute to America is actually “The Yankee Doodle Boy.” Cohan
excited U.S. audiences again in 1906 with “You’re a Grand Old
Flag,” although the original line was “You’re a Grand Old Rag.”
It was America’s entrance into World War I in 1917 that inspired
Cohan to write “Over There,” for which he received a
congressional medal.

“God Bless America,” Irving Berlin, 1938. The prolific Berlin
(900+ songs despite being unable to read music) originally wrote
this song right after the first World War, but did not complete
it until just before World War II. Kate Smith first performed it
during her radio show on Armistice Day, 1938. An immediate
sensation, the song was often suggested to replace the “Star
Spangled Banner” as the national anthem.

“Star Spangled Banner,” Jimi Hendrix, 1969. The legendary
guitarist took the stage near dawn on the final day of the
Woodstock Music and Art Fair. The 13th song in his hour-long set
was an incendiary rendition of the venerable tune. In a
performance that was somehow savage and grand at the same time,
Hendrix wrestled new levels of emotion from the song and
generations have never heard it quite the same way again.

“Apocalypse Now,” Francis Ford Coppola, 1979. The music in
question is “Ride of the Valkyries,” from Richard Wagner’s
opera, “Die Walkure (1854-56). The composition fit perfectly
into director Coppola’s nightmarish vision of the Vietnam War.
The sequence, featuring a helicopter attack at dawn, never fails
to raise the emotions of viewers.

Photo available here:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/immedia@pacbell.net/detail?.dir=8e5
2&.dnm=dd51.jpg&.src=ph

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