Modern Absurdities

I bought the new Apple TV - a neat little device that allows one to use content off your computer on your TV.  The new model also allows you to get things like movies from Netflix.   I have something like 300 movies, 10,000 songs and 30,000 photos on my MacPro so now you can use all those on a big screen.   I have the earlier model and so installed the new one on the other flat screen.

The new model costs less than $100 and is tiny. (Probably much smaller than the picture at the right.   But to be able to hook it up to your TV you need an HDMI cable (High Definition Multimedia Interface) which allows the content you have gotten from your computer to the device wirelessly to move into the screen at a faster rate with high quality.  I went to Best Buy and it turns out there were three models of cables - $25/$50 and $100 for the short cable.   I ended up buying the one that cost half the price of the device - then reading up on it many experts say the transfer rate on the cables (the higher priced ones supposedly move content at a higher quality quicker) is about the same.   So the real cost of the device is $150, still worth it but 50% more.