Huffman Coding

First it was Teletubbies.

Then it was Shrek 2.

Now it is Shark Tale.

What is the fictional world coming to?

My computer room TV died a couple of months ago. It was ancient. No remote, it had a rotary dial and you actually had to clack-clack-clack through the channels.

In the AV pecking order of the house, the 13″ bedroom TV was demoted to the computer room, while I looked for a nicer one for the master suite.

Almost all the CRTs out todayare now flat screen. Bending the glass that way also makes them about a half a foot deeper. A new 20″ TV (the next size up from 13″) takes up a lot of bedroom furniture top real estate.

While we briefly considered buying another piece of furniture, Chris smartly suggested we put that money into a thin LCD TV instead. I initially balked at getting one because they are still pretty expensive, but I started looking for a low end one on sale. A Best Buy 10% coupon came in the mail, but I was unable to use it because the entire inventory of the model I was trying to buy (all 3 of them) was being held back for the After Thanksgiving Day sale to satisfy the fine print: “minimum 3 per store.”

Thanksgiving was at the in-laws, so that meant heading for the Best Buy in Findlay for the Friday sale. Since they were 40 minutes away from the store and it opened at 6am, it meant I had to get up at 4:30am to get in line. Since I was unfamiliar with the area, my mother-in-law offered to chauffer me at that hour. I would have been lost without her.

People think it is called Black Friday because that is day the retailers go into the black for the year. But that is not by my account: it’s because you have to leave the house when it is pitch black out to get in on the deals.

We arrived at Best Buy at 5:30am. There were several dozen people ahead of us. Some had already been to Meijers which had started their sale at 5am. Twenty minutes later there were hundreds behind us. Before the doors opened, employees were hawking vouchers for some of the popular items. For example the $18 DVD player and the $199 computer. About ten minutes ’til, a barker/manager came out and explained the process for the uninitiated. That was most of us.

There was blue line taped to the floor inside. It lead, in a big circle, from the entrance around to the check out lanes. At the back of the store, off the blue path, was the dock were you could exchange your vouchers for the real things. If you wanted something less common that didn’t have voucher, there were trails through the store where you could queue for a sales associate. Off of the main circular trail was a blue taped route into Home Theatre. That was my exit ramp. A white tape branched to the CDs/DVDs. A yellow line lead to computers. To avoid mad rushes, big appliance boxes were put in the aisles to block other routes into each area. You had to follow the tape, but this prevented people from ditching in front of you. It was a very efficient and organized process.

Twenty minutes after the store opened, we were out the door: I had my 20″ LCD TV and my mother-in-law had surprised herself with a combo DVD/VHS player.

One thing to note. The flyer I perused Thursday in Columbus was slightly different than the flyer I saw after leaving the store. The latter had a $499 laptop on the cover. I am now kicking myself for not getting it. Tapping this blog entry on my PDA is a big pain.

Chris finished her Christmas shopping sometime in October. I, however, have yet to start. But one thing did catch my eye and I have gotten it for the girls already.

The girls got a Game Boy Advance SP last year. The girls have a handful of game cartridges to go along with it. I read about the GBA Movie Player last month. It seemed too cool and cheap not to get. Regardless of whether the girls even wanted it. But I think they will.

Unlike typical game cartridges, the Movie Player cartridge itself has a slot. Into that slot goes a standard CompactFlash memory card. That CF card can be filled with pictures, music, and videos from your computer. (There are conversion programs for just about every file format.) Plug it into the Game Boy and it can play/view those files. Way cool.

After loading it up with a couple of picture and sound files, I showed this to Chris after the girls went to bed. Her eyes rolled and she asked whether giving the girls another cartridge was a good thing. When I insisted it was worthy simply because it was cool, she wasn’t impressed.

At least I passed the geek “gene” onto my oldest daughter.