Hagen

...waterskiing/wakeboarding doesn't need to be expensive. If you want to give it a try - try to find a waterskiing club in your area. Here in the bay area we have fun and syn. You pay $100 per weekend (same price as two lift tickets) plus camping cost (usually cheaper than staying close to a ski resort in the winter). The price for the weekend includes equipment rental... ...and from what I learned - waterskiiers/wakeboarders tend to throw good parties! Hagen.

Nice ride! ...looks like you got the summer carving covered now.

When I started to work on HDTV systems back in '98 the word was that this would have happened by now... It seems that every year it gets pushed out again. But I agree, once it's mandatory and analog TV gets switched off, DTVs will become much cheaper. ...and it's getting much cheaper already, you can get 26" 16:9 CRTs for about $500 and 32" flat pannels are getting closer to $1000...

Have to agree with Pat - CRTs are the way to go for picture quality. That is if you can live with the max. 34 or 36" screen size and the overall size and weight of the TV. ...about wires, I started to buy monster cable since I had the money back then. But I'm not sure if I can really hear a difference between different cables... ...and I'm working on audio related stuff for consumer electronics. But for video (especially analog) the cable can make a big difference. For digital I'm not sure. But then regular hdmi or dvi cables are quite expensive to begin with...

It really depends on what your goals are... ...I myself have a Sony receiver and bose speakers together with a rather crappy TV. Works fine for me. But I also know people who prefer to spend big $$$ on just a two speaker setup with seperate pre-amp and power-amp instead of spending the same or less money on a surround setup. Here is what I would do / look for if my wife would let me shop for a home entertainment system: - look for a receiver that is in my price range and has all the inputs that I need (e.g. multiple component video inputs, digital audio inputs, enough s-video inputs, may be hdmi...) - I would probably go with bose speakers again - I like small speakers that you don't notice and that are not in the way yet still sound good That was the audio part. Now about the TV... ...I would probably go for a DLP rear projection TV right now - good price/quality ratio. I'm not too convinced by the quality / price ratio of current LCD/plasma TVs. Good flat pannels are too expensive, cheap ones don't really have the quality - in my opinion anyway... Other importent components: - dvd player: Would probably look for one with hdmi output (if your TV supports it) - all digital connection! I have another requirement - easy hack to enable European DVDs plus PAL to NTSC conversion built in. ...I every so often get DVDs from Germany. I found a Philips DVD player that does all that - just 4 key presses to enable the hack - TiVo - a must! Would like to buy the DirecTV HD TiVo - but don't have the money right now... ...and would also need an HD ready TV. Also DirecTV will switch their video compression to H.264 for future HD channels - makes sense to wait for that since current boxes won't be able to handle that... Hagen.

...very funny! :D

one small rquest: You can specify four different kinds of IMs that you are using. But there is a fifth (missing) one that seems to become more and more popular - skype. ...since skype was discussed here quite a bit, is there a way to add aditional IMs? Hagen.

Have to agree - like it!

...besides working on the house - not really. I hope that I get to go wakeboarding at least once this season. ...also want to try a slalom waterski - looks a lot like carving on an alpine board. But last time I tried I couldn't get out of the water on a ski so I went back to the wakeboard. ...oh yeah, I'll be drivin through Redding some time next Saturday - we are doing a small road trip to OR to visit some of my wifes family. I'm almost tempted to drive by Tahoe to grab one of my boards after seeing oldsnowboard's pictures from Timberline (we'll be staying about an hour from Mt. Hood for a few days...). Hagen.

Hi Sandman, I'm doing well... ...pretty busy though. We bought a house a couple of weeks ago. Now we are getting it ready to move in. Which means for me that I'm working every night after work at the house. ...same for the weekends. My snowboarding season also ended kind of early because of that (had to get our condo representable before we could sell it...). Looks like you had fun at the Nationals! ...I guess you ankle is doing better? Hagen.

...hmm beer - now that's a thread I like! I must say that I was a little bit concerned when I moved to the states - the only American beer (although it probably shouldn't be called beer) I was exposed to in Germnay was Bud... ...but I was pleasently surprised when I got here about all the great micro brews. And if I miss my German beer I can go to BevMo - they have a great selection on European beers. Here are some of the German beers that I like and that you can get in CA (and probably in other states, bevmo has an online shop): Paulaner Optimator - a meal in a bottle and a quick way to get drunk. Koestrizer - great dark beer from good old East Germany. Radeberger - great Pilsner, also from an East German brewery. Other good European beers: Pilsner Urquell - I think it's the original Pilsner. Duvel - strong (I think over 8%) Belgium beer. Grolsch - my favorit Dutch beer. ...and then there is the huge selection of microbrews - try out the different beers from the Lake Tahoe Brewery next time you make it here... Prost!

...Dilbert was on TV for a while.

Great pics! Thanks for posting. ...is this guy coming out of his rear bindings?

mnovak, you're not behind the times - just on the wrong continent. :D Last time I was skiing/snowboarding in Austria (9 or ten years ago...) they were really starting to get into carving back in Europe (I guess the shaped skis that started to be marketed helped...). You could see alot of people carving it up. ...and b.t.w. the better carvers on skis also didn't use poles... Hagen.

Check out this website for carvers on skis....

Okay Rugger, A linebacker in a pro team only 5 foot tall? ...I don't know too much about football - but that doesn't sound quite right. To make sure that I'm not completely wrong here, I just checked the current line-up of the Browns. There is no player smaller than 5-10. An yes, most linebackers are in the mid 200 lbs range but they are also all at least 6 foot tall... And since we are talking about linebackers - some of those heavier guys look like they could be considered overweight... I agree that there are people out there that can be quite fit at larger than normal weight/hight ratios. But let's face it a man or woman at 5 foot (and I'm not talking 5-10) and over 200 pound is most likely overweight... ...and yes, please don't be oversensitive... Hagen.

...f**** prada - this is my kind of snowboard

Jack, I have to agree with skywalker. You would have to add extra energy for the two car crash to cause more damage than when you drive a car against the wall at the same speed. Hagen.

...and I bet Verizon will thank you when they send you the next bill. I gave up on the internet access on my cell phone after the bills came in... ...or are you one of those lucky guys who's company pays the cell phone bill?

...he should have opened two accounts. One for saving the bunny and one for cooking it - let the bidding war begin! :D

...great boards before they start to delam. All you can do now is put it up on a wall and use it for magnet-poetry or overflow space for fridge magnets...

I guess that depends on your screen resolution. For running at 1600x1200 with firefox it works. Hagen.

Great pictures! ...and a question - what software do you use to generate that online galery? Thanks, Hagen. ...never mind, just looked at the sources and saw that it's Photoshop CS. I guess I'll need to play with CS tonight when I get back home...

Kamran, I think the rear binding is a step in. I have seen those before. The heel clip locks automatically. Hagen.

Looks like you guys are having almost too much fun over there... ...can't wait to get to the mountains this weekend. Crowded Tahoe resorts, doh... Hagen.