Another of Scott's Homes on the Web

Anyone know of a Twin Cities, MN source for colored (AKA anodized) aluminum tumblers? Like these on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Set-Six-Anodized-Aluminum-Tumblers/dp/B0002T7KGG

I'm getting a new Android phone, which I have discovered can take a ... rather large microSDXC card. Large enough that it's feasible to dump all of my music collection on it, and use it for my traveling music player.

Most of my collection is classical or related - about 8000 files total. My feature wish list is play by genre tag, custom playlists, and random play of playlist / selection. Integration with a Windows music player, so that I can generate the playlists there and transfer them over, would be nice. I'm currently using Songbird for my Windows player, I'd consider moving to something else for a sufficiently compelling case.

So, what's your favorite Android player, and why?

(This is the post promised in a later bottle.)

We're upgrading to DirecTV's Genie device / service. Our DirecTiVo that we got in ... 2002? 2003? is dying - it is randomly locking up, and sometimes not finishing a boot after being power-cycled. We've been loyal DirecTV customers for sufficiently long that the hardware upgrade (include mini-Genie for a second room, and new satellite antenna) is free - we're paying $21.50 for the installation, and our bill is going up about $19/month.

This means that our TV that was new in 2000 is finally getting replaced by an HDTV.

And I need some help / pointers.

We'll be sitting 100-110" from the TV. We have a low awareness / high tolerance for digital artifacting.

Research is leading me to believe I'm looking at wanting a 35-70" TV. The space it's going into is about 51" wide - our current theory is that we're going to get a new media center with a built-in support for the TV that will fit the space. The media center that the old TV is in has a hole 28" wide for the TV - the HDTVs that would fit that space are way too small.

How important is 1080 vs 720? p vs i? (I know i is interlaced, and that I should prefer p.) 60hz vs 120hz? What are the trade-offs of bigger vs. smaller? Got any pointers to a good 'I'm almost totally ignorant, educate me on the pros and cons'?

Finally, any brand recommendations? Pro or con accepted.

I'm investigating the possibility of getting a smart phone. I'm currently on a pay-as-you-go plan from BoostMobile, we spend about $45/year on it. What I want for a smartphone is:

• Android


• Pay-as-you-go, preferably using BoostMobile


• All non-voice-phone functions usable over wifi

We ended up on BoostMobile for two reasons - it only required a payment every 90 days (as opposed to every 30 days for many of its competitors), and it's considered in-network for Sprint callers. My younger step-daughter and her husband are on Sprint, they are among the people most likely to be calling our cell, and it's free to them.

Every time I check, it looks like the minimum monthly data plan for a smartphone on any network is at least $50. We cannot justify that extra $500/year for what is, for us, a toy.

Would CyanogenMod give me the access-over-wifi requirement? Assuming the base phone does wifi, of course.

Anyone have any recommendations? Or pointers to a 'choose your smartphone' site that might help me identify one that meets my needs?