I'll keep you posted. I'm starting to do a little research on the LCD TV's as I kinda think I might put a 27" or 30" one in my bedroom.

What?

Don't look at me like that.

I ended up buying this: [link] 30" LCD TV, as it got a good review... somewhere, and was only $1099. It works great, except for an annoying buzzing sound. It's there when I run the signal from my TiVo via coax, but it's much worse when I use the composit cable from the TiVo. Maybe I'll try component cables. Or perhaps better shielded cables, as maybe there's something else I have that's causing interference. But I never had this problem when I hooked my TiVo to a VCR and then to my ancient TV (using composit cables to the VCR and coax to the TV).

The Mac Mini works great hooked up via DVI, except that for a PC input it only has a mono input, which means I gotta wire the stereo output from the Mini directly to my stereo. Now to get WiFi and Bluetooth installed in the Mini.

Now to get WiFi and Bluetooth installed in the Mini.

Cheaper to DIY than to buy it that way?

Cheaper to DIY than to buy it that way?

No. To buy it that way you gotta order from Apple. I couldn't wait so I bought one off the shelf. eta: And when the Mini was in my bedroom the lack of wireless was not an issue, but it is when the Mini's in the living room.

The WiFi and Bluetooth upgrade kit is not supposed to be DIY, although it looks doable. But I'm not sure if someone who's not an Apple store or repair facility can buy the upgrade kit.

Hmm, here's a place that has it for $129 cdn: [link]

I downloaded the technical manual for the Mini other day.

The Mini has interesting instructions for opening. Reminds me of the classic style Macs. Break out the wide putty knives!

How much geek-nature does it take to salvage an old hard drive from an IBM thinkpad and put it into a case? I know somebody here did it, and I'm thinking of doing the same.

Are we talking soldering? Screwing? Oscilloscopes?

How much geek-nature does it take to salvage an old hard drive from an IBM thinkpad and put it into a case?

I'm gonna guess "very little." (I'm assuming that laptop HDs use the same IDE and power connectors that regular HDs use, or that you can get adapters if they don't. But I'm not 100% sure of this.) You just need to get a case that can hold a small laptop HD.

Are we talking soldering? Screwing? Oscilloscopes?

Screwing?

Wait, what kind of drive was that?

eta: Wait, do you mean an external HD case, or inside a computer case?

I mean an external HD case.

Here's something that might work: [link]

This will work with a 2.5" laptop drive. But I am confused as to why they say it'll work on 4200RPM drives up to 40 Gig. I don't see why the RPM or capacity would matter. They also say,

You'll need to fdisk & format the drive before use

Which I would think would not be necessary if the OS on the computer you're gonna attach it to can support the filetype of the drive.

But anyway, try googling 'external hard drive case laptop' for other possibilities.

ETA: [link]

EXTERNAL USB 2.0 CASE FOR LAPTOP 2.5" HARD DRIVE - $11