The origin of the phrase "It's always Friday somewhere" is now lost to antiquity. The prominent American nacho chain "TGI Friday's" tried to adopt this as their own slogan. It was a disaster. They were forced to change it almost immediately to "In here, it's always Friday". The best restauranteurs, wardens, and casino operators know that you have to keep your patrons focused inward until it's time to turn over the table/cell/stool.
Americans produce domestically almost 80% of the Fridays they use. The Friday deficit can be attributed mostly to office workers who simply assume that COB Friday and SOB Monday are really the same thing. They are not. The extra Fridays it takes to cover that weekend work have to be made somewhere and the shocking truth is that many are made by totalitarian regimes under primitive conditions. China alone spans five geographical time zones but shows only a single time zone to the outside world. Where do all those extra Happy Hours go? They are stolen by the millions from impoverished rural farmers and sold on shady exchanges around the world.
Does your favorite watering hole now offer one dollar rail drinks from five to close? How do you think they are able to extend the traditional two hour Happy Hour? With stolen ones. That's how. You will never look at 'Breakfast Served All Day' the same way after you've seen the conditions in a morning mine in the jungle run by the Columbian cartels.
Some of you may have noticed that our traditional Friday feature 'ewaste' didn't put in an appearance yesterday. Don't worry. It's here and we are bringing it to you now using an ethically harvested and fairly traded Friday afternoon culled by Laplanders from the endless sun of a high arctic summer day.
Today's ewaste offering is a ScreenPlay 4805 DLP video projector from InFocus. I bought this projector as a refurb directly from InFocus 2004 or so. It's DLP chip from TI offered much higher contrast than the LCD projectors of the day. The 4805 was one of the first budget home theater projectors. It boasted a native 16:9 aspect ratio and a double-speed color wheel to reduce rainbow effect.
The 4805 had several flaws. Strangely, for a projector, the one that irritated me most was not glaring. It was more of a whine. The cooling fan ran all the time. Even when the projector was shut off with the remote. The fan wouldn't stop until the cord was unplugged or the mechanical power switch was thrown on the side of the unit. I kept mine mounted inverted near the ceiling and this was always a pain.
Bulbs were expensive, but no more so than for other projectors of the time. I think I put about five thousand hours on the unit and went through just one bulb. The projector was not bright and would have required room darkening window coverings in any room before sundown.
The projector went on the ewaste pile not long after it died. A single expensive part failed. These projectors have a tiny 'light tunnel' about an inch long and a quarter inch on a side that takes light from the bulb assembly to the DLP optics box. That tunnel is made from four pieces of mirrored glass that form the tunnel. The pieces touch only at the corners and were held together with glue. If the projector gets just a bit too hot, the tunnel comes apart. Mine did just that. Some replacements were available on EBay for around a hundred bucks but I had little confidence that a replacement would arrive intact, survive installation, and then continue to function for long.
I don't expect to replace the 4805 with another projector. I paid about $750 in 2004. For that price today, I could buy a 50" LED backlit LCD TV from Toshiba at Best Buy. That's almost as large as the image I used to project. The cheapest 1080p projector from Best Buy is $799.
I'm not surprised that flat panel prices have fallen. The apparent ongoing collapse in prices is no more amazing than the regular semiconductor miracles to which I have become accustomed. I am amazed that projector prices have not fallen to match. TI may enjoy a monopoly on the MEMS mirror arrays that make DLP work but there should be no corresponding limits on LCD or lamp technology for projectors. Where's my 8000 lumen 4k LED projector for $300?
There are no such projectors because there was never a market for them. As far as I can tell, most of the recent innovation in the projector market is in 'pico-projectors'. These take some of the very same DLPs used in more expensive projectors and pair them with 50 lumen LEDs. This seems like an attempt to move down-market without first having a market. These projectors still cost hundreds of dollars and typically can't produce an image larger than a cheap laptop in a room with any ambient light.
For me, it makes no difference how a 50 inch picture can best be generated today. I switched from the 4805 as my primary media screen to a 27 inch iMac. I haven't looked back yet. I haven't listened to the persistient rumors of an integrated Apple TV. I have paid much more attention to the forthcoming 50th anniversary edition of Lawrence of Arabia. Ask me again in November what I think about a large screen.
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