This may be my first ever Chit-Chat thread....but I'm too lazy to check.

Just got a new system that is pretty cool. I didn't want to get the top of the line, but some aspects are pretty near there. It's a Pentium D 2.8GHz, which is pretty near the top. What I really wanted to go along with this was a large flat screen. Even the 19" CRT I had didn't offer enough screen area. Once you get the properties window...uh...and all those other little windows you can have on the screen...Well, there just wasn't much room left for code.

Therefore, I decided to get a 20" flat screen. However, I went with a Dell, and in one of the configurations, there was an option for a 24" wide format flat screen for about what I would have paid for a 20" screen. Cool. With that wide format, I can watch theatre cut DVD's, and have 50% more screen width than I had before. I am running it in 1650x1050 mode (or something like that). It goes to 1900x1200, but at that size I have a hard time reading text on the screen.

What next? Will we be seeing 36" wide-format, wall-hanging monitors? Will we be able to sit across the room in the recliner with a wireless keyboard, wireless mouse, wireless fridge, etc., while we code on our wall-sized projection screen? Will we be able to play Doom III with life-sized characters and full suround sound? We're close already (in fact, I think I could do that in our conference room at work, though the computer may not be good enough for a cutting edge game).

Oh yeah, I also got the surround sound speaker system. Didn't really mean to get that, it was practically bundled in. I'm not quite sure what to do with the 'rear' speakers. My setup isn't appropriate for such things.