Avi Greengart is the Research Director for Mobile Devices at Current Analysis. He is also the Editor of Home Theater View, a blog on home theater and digital entertainment. Avi's expertise lies in understanding consumer electronics marketing, consumer behavior, and technology adoption patterns: where new technologies meet the mass market. 

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The Teaneck Shuls Page

What's on this page:

bulletHome Theater & Electronics Get-It-Out-Of-My-House Sale
bulletTeaneck Wireless Coverage
bulletTech Talk 2
bulletBadly Outdated Jewish Life Worksheet

Get-It-Out-Of-My-House Sale

I was hoping Teaneck Shuls members could help me reclaim some storage space. Prices are not negotiable, this is not an auction (or eBay). All items come with original manuals and remote controls (where relevant) and are gently used unless otherwise noted. (Please note: I am the original owner of all items – I don’t ever sell items I get from companies to review.)

updated 8:46 pm 1/2/08

Still Available?   What is it?   Item Condition Price   Description
SOLD 52” widescreen HDTV   JVC HD-52Z575 Used $650   D-ILA microprojection TV, 15" deep cabinet. This is JVC's version of LCoS (Sony's version is "SXRD"). 1280x720p with HDMI input (plus several component, S-video, etc.). HDTV image quality is excellent. Will include IKEA stand for $15 if you want it (selling the stand ONLY with purchase of TV).
YES Home theater front projector   Plus HE-3100 “Piano” Used $350   720x480p front projector with excellent color balance, perfect for DVDs (no scaling required). Only 445 hours on the bulb - the bulb is worth more than the cost of the projector with it. The projector is really small and can be placed on a table and stored in a closet when not in use, or permanently mounted on the ceiling. Original box and (unused) carrying case included.
YES Home theater screen   84” SharpVision screen Used $50   84" manual (pull-down) projection screen. Matte white 1.0 gain, 4:3 aspect ratio.
SOLD HDTV receiver/upsampling DVD player   LG LST-3510A Used $100   Tunes HDTV over the air or off of cable (QAM; if you have analog cable, you can decode HDTV channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 from Cablevision at no additional charge. It's what they mean in their commercials when they say "HDTV is free"). Also plays regular DVDs and outputs them at 480i or upsampled resolutions: 480p/720p/1080i.
SOLD DVR with lifetime subscription already paid   ReplayTV 3020 Used $150   20 hours of recording, 30 second skip, 7 second replay, free programming guide ($299 value - no monthly fees to pay).
SOLD Old, slow PC   Compaq Presario 5300US Used $65   1.1 GHz processor, 20 GB HD, Windows XP. Here's the spec sheet; I added a CD-R/W drive. I may have made a few other upgrades... who remembers? It’s old, it’s slow, it’s cheap. It works, but don't call me for tech support.
SOLD Subcompact digital camera   Minolta Dimage X50 Used $65   5 MP, 2.8x optical zoom. Small enough to fit in a shirt pocket, but more solidly constructed than most and it takes beautiful pictures. Go ahead, Google it - the reviews were all positive.
YES Wii-like video game system and game   XavixPort Game Console and Xavix Bass Fishing New $100   Before Ninendo launched the Wii, Xavix brought out its own console based on moving around in the real world waving things or jumping on things. Once you have the console you can buy fitness pads, baseball bats, bowling balls, etc. for it. This is the console itself and the Xavix Bass Fishing rod, reel, and game cartridge. Both are new and unopened. Sells on amazon for $160.
YES MP3 player for your car (hard drive, digital media player, controller) with WiFi   omnifi mobile digital media player New* $100   This was so cool I just had to buy it. Then it sat on a shelf forever, like a lot of this stuff. I have a problem. Anyway, it is a 20 GB hard drive for your car with a controller so you can play digital music on the go. You can take the hard drive inside, or use the WiFi receiver to update tunes over your WiFi network with your car parked in the driveway. (*The controller and hard driver are new in an  unopened box; the WiFi receiver was used with something else for a week).
SOLD Portable firewall   ZyXEL ZyWALL P1 New $45   Hardware firewall appliance designed to be small and portable enough to take on the road.
SOLD Bose in-ear headphones   Bose in-ear headphones New $69   People love Bose stuff, and these are pretty good. To be completely honest, I prefer the entry level Shure's better (I have a spare pair of the Bose - these haven't been opened), but you won't find a less expensive set of the Bose, and I can get them out of my house.
SOLD Low profile window air conditioner   LG LP6000-ER Used $125   Hey, it has digital controls, a remote control, and needs to be out of my house, so it belongs on the same list as an HDTV. Energy Star rated. Used for two seasons.

*MAYBE = there's someone ahead of you in line, but no deal has been completed. I'm responding in the order email is received, but I am not holding things for anyone - whoever gets here first gets the item.

Interested? Email me at auctions "aht" greengart "dawt" com. First come, first served. Thanks,

 

- avi

Teaneck Wireless Coverage
(52KB Excel file)
Updated 11/19/06

As a mobile devices analyst at Current Analysis, I have at least one phone from each carrier.  I took the opportunity to pretend I was Verizon's "Can you hear me now?" guy and took at least six phones to 12 locations within Teaneck. The spreadsheet includes similar tests I performed three years ago in the same locations.

The methodology is NOT scientific (the handsets are not identical, and even the "number of bars" is not calibrated the same on each phone) but should give a rough real-world snapshot of what you might expect in various locations around Teaneck. These are personal observations, and should not be construed as research findings validated by my employer, Current Analysis.

Over the past three years, Cingular bought AT&T Wireless and moved all traffic off of AT&T’s TDMA network and off of T-Mobile’s GSM network and consolidated everything on its own GSM network. Sprint bought Nextel, and due to various technical and business reasons, coverage on Nextel's network across the country has taken a nosedive. Sprint promises that it is reinvesting in Nextel and that things will get better.

bulletCingular went from mooching off of T-Mobile's network to building its own network in Teaneck, and it truly does offer more bars in more places - Cingular is the only carrier to provide coverage everywhere. Even in Glatt Express. However, its super-fast HSDPA network (equivalent to fast DSL) is only available in one corner of the town near New Milford. Everywhere else gets EDGE (about 2x dial-up speeds)
 
bulletT-Mobile made amazing strides in the past three years, and now provides excellent coverage everywhere except the West Englewood area. Go ahead, talk it up. Note that T-Mobile does not offer a super-fast data network; EDGE (about 2x dial-up speeds) is the best you'll get with them.
 
bulletSprint and Nextel's coverage look about the same - which makes sense, because they share the same tower locations now. However, Sprint's coverage is considerably more reliable than Nextel, where signal levels vary widely from minute to minute (I used averages). Sprint also provides EV-DO service (DSL speeds) wherever it gets a decent signal, so if you want to watch the NFL network or buy an EV-DO card for your notebook, Sprint does have the most powerful network. Truth in advertising again!
 
bulletCan you hear me now? Most of the time. Verizon Wireless has improved a bit in the past three years, but not nearly as much as its competitors, and it now trails everyone in terms of breadth and quality of coverage. Its EV-DO network (DSL-like speeds) is available in roughly half the places I tested.

Tech Talk 2
(102KB PowerPoint file)

The Beth Aaron Men's Club asked me to give a consumer electronics overview, and in exchange, rather than the $5,000 fee my firm usually charges for presentations like this, they would give me an apron. Seemed like a good deal at the time.  

Badly Outdated Jewish Life Worksheet
(39KB Excel File)

11/19/06 PLEASE NOTE: This worksheet was last updated several years ago and is now badly out of date. I do NOT have firm plans to update it. Some changes that need to be made: housing and tuition costs are both way (way) up, food is up slightly, and insurance costs are down a bit (life insurance is down a little, car insurance in NJ is down a lot).

(The answer to, "how come I don't have any money?" and also why "I don't have to get a degree, I'll learn 'for a few years' and then, at some point, if I have to work, I'll work" only works if you plan to accept tzedaka instead of giving it)

In order to determine how expensive Jewish life is, I've created a realistic scenario that represents the most expensive time of life. This should provide insight into total family income required at this point in life. It should be noted that this time of life also - thankfully - tends to coincide with the peak earning years for many careers. Therefore, if you're using the Worksheet as a guideline for choosing a career, keep in mind that you don't need a starting salary in this amount, just the likelihood of achieving it somewhere down the road. Also, single income families are increasingly rare - possibly because otherwise there's simply no way to get there from here. It's total family income we're looking for.