Buying new TV? Read this first

Your boxy old tube is growing obsolete, so is it…Time to Buy a Flat Panel TV?

What Is It? New flat panel TVs come in two formats, LCD (liquid crystal display) and plasma. LCD screens are just like those on laptop PCs. [Even if your TV screen looks flat, it most probably has a cathode ray tube (CRT), so it’s not a flat panel TV.] Plasma screens have innumerable gas-filled picture elements that get illuminated by electrical signals. LCD sets normally range from 15 to 23 inches in size; plasma, between 32 and 50 inches.

Cost? Depends on the features and brand. In general, the smallest LCD sets start at about Rs60,000, while plasma sets start at about Rs 2.3 lakhs; some 50-inch plasma sets cost around Rs 5 lakhs.

Pros: Both LCD and plasma provide more picture clarity than CRTs. Being very thin, they take up less room than CRTs. Some can be hung on the wall. Cons: Plasma screens tend to have shorter life spans than LCDs—over time, the picture quality tends to degrade. The weight of plasma TVs may require a professional to wall-mount them.

Bottom Line: LCDs are your best choice. But since they’ll soon replace CRTs to become the standard, it’s worth waiting till prices really drop.

Relaxing at home

Quiet, Please! Open windows and more time outdoors can also mean noisy neighbours, barking dogs and the din of speeding cars. Some people have been masking the noise with these methods:

• Use your PC With Atmosphere Deluxe (relaxingsoftware.com), you customize your own nature sound mix. Then, fed through your PC speakers, you’ll hear the ocean or tropical frog pond instead of the mower across the street.
• Tune it out iSplash waterproof speakers (sharperimage.com) play music from an iPod or any source with a headphone jack.
• Consider storm windows An outer laminated window can cut outside noise by up to 10 decibels—perceived as half the amount of sound, says one sound engineer.

Looking to buy a laptop?

Read this…

• Don’t be seduced by super-fast processor speeds unless you’re running graphics-intensive applications such as games or design programs.
• If you are running the software codes, consider for dual core with higher RAM.
• If you want to watch DVDs on the move, buy a laptop with an internal DVD drive. An external drive could be a nuisance if you travel a lot.
• Buy a spare or higher-capacity battery for when you’re not near a plug socket.
• Be prepared to pay extra for software. Even Microsoft Office is absent from many packages.
• Due to their rough life, laptops are more prone to failure making it vital to back up data: a second, external hard drive or pen-drive makes this easier.
• Up-loading digital pictures? You’ll need a memory-card slot (Now a days, all laptops have these slots).
• Buy a decent bag to protect your laptop.

Health Care - Diabetes

Diabetes or Just Normal Thirst?

Do you feel thirsty or tired all the time? If so, you could be one of the estimated 40 million Indians who have diabetes. Here’s what to look for:

• As well as increased fatigue and thirst, typical symptoms include urinating more often (as your kidneys try to excrete excess sugar), weight loss, blurred vision (caused by blood glucose accumulating in your eye’s lens) and genital itching (sometimes due to infection). Cuts may also take longer to heal.
• Type 1 diabetes can be triggered by a virus and tends to develop within days or over a few weeks; Type 2 onset is slower and can be mistaken for stress or ageing.
• People under 40 are more prone to Type 1 but, due to rising levels of obesity, are now the fastest growing group for Type 2-once linked with old age. Both Types run in families.
• If you’re worried, go to your GP for a urine test to measure your glucose level. A healthy diet (low in salt, fat and sugar) and daily exercise are crucial for preventing Type 2.

November 14 is World Diabetes Day.

Computer Comfort

In a recent Microsoft survey, 73% of respondents named their keyboard and mouse as the things they touched most during the day. Half of all respondents said they’ve experienced discomfort using a computer.

If you spend most of your day in front of a computer, Dan Odell, a Microsoft ergonomist, offers these tips for avoiding injury:

Adjust your chair so your feet are firmly on the ground.

Set your keyboard at elbow height. “We see more discomfort in the shoulders and neck than in the hands and wrists,” says Odell. “If your desk is too high, you tend to hold your arms up over the desk, which results in an extra load on your shoulders.”

Avoid extreme reaches. If the mouse is too far away, your shoulder is really rotated when you use it, comments Odell.

Look for products designed for comfort such as a padded wrist rest or a mouse that fits the relaxed posture of the hand.

Don’t ignore even minor discomfort. According to Odell, any misalignment can add up.

Lively Places

Last week I visited Los Angeles, Salt Lake city, and San Francisco in USA with my friends. They are very nice places and I will tell you all the details about sight seeing soon.

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