I’d forgotten how much fun it was the last time I bucked for FSO. They ask for a LOT of information, and this won’t be nearly the end of it if I make it. On a purely personal note, the fact that State is on a hiring kick may do me some good.

I’ve said it before (and I assume your post was in reference to that). I think I could do some good at State. Anywho, this begs a tech tangent.

I backed HD-DVD over Blu-ray because HD-DVD lacked region coding. I’ve imported a bunch of HD-DVD’s and never had a problem playing them. The region coding scheme is pure annoyance.

Apparently there are some persnickety dvds that will ask about a wrong region on purpose and will refuse to play if the dvd player says that it’ll play that region. Selectable region dvd players can defeat even that.

In addition to the different region, British TV uses a different format (PAL instead of our NTSC) using a different frequency and number of scan lines.

Some multi-region players incorporate a built-in converter, but many require a separate converter as well.

Whoever picked this idea of a gift probably didn’t have clue that other countries do NOT do everything the way we do.

If Obama and his staff weren’t liberal democrats, suggestions of “arrogance” would be raised.

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