Financial & Travel Musings

Thinking about televisions and the evolving TV standards is something of a pain for most of us.

Just when it looked like we’d soon be getting a free TV with the cornflakes, they changed the goal posts yet again. The majority of people were quite content with TVs weighing in around 28” for their main room or so, the plumetting price of LCD style ones means that now it’s commonplace to think of around 40” to be the minimum size for one’s main room and the typical 16” bedroom set has now largely been replaced by 20” or greater models.

Whilst this inflation in size has gone on (accompanied by a rapid drop in prices) we’ve also moved from 4:3 ratio to 16:9 and from “normal” to HD-ready to full-HD TVs. As well as the picture the manufacturers have quietly added surround sound and home cinema facilities to almost all TVs on the market and even more quietly made the majority of them multi-standard so that they’ll play the American NTSC and the European PAL signals (this is rarely documented though).

As you’ll probably gather this is probably one of the most confusing times to be buying a new TV for many years!

Popularity: 3% [?]

These days many small software firms specialise in niche markets essentially tailoring off the shelf software to the needs of companies within their niche. That works fine if your needs are fairly standard and it’s a very economical way to go but what if your needs don’t fit neatly into some vertical niche market?

That’s where custom software comes into play. With bespoke software basically you can ask for anything although obviously that flexibility comes with a cost and, sometimes, a substantial one.

However, regardless of the upfront price of your software solution, it’s worth considering the ongoing cost of maintenance and upgrades with bespoke software. Whilst with standard software it’s simply a matter of paying up for the latest upgrade, in the case of bespoke software you’ll generally need to specify your requirements as they change and, eventually, the software may need to be rewritten (allow for this cropping up after no more than 10 years).

Popularity: 6% [?]

In amongst all the creams and potions on the shelf designed to roll back the years are more medical forms of treatment that you can get going on by yourself.

One of these is salicylic acid which basically operates by way of peeling off the top layer of your skin revealing the nice new skin underneath the outer layer. Given the slightly medical nature of this treatment it’s best to be careful with this one and try it out on a small patch of skin before you get going on a grand scale.

An interesting option that can serve as a quick-fix rejuvination short of surgery.

Popularity: 4% [?]