Geeks in Daylight

Continuing from yesterday, I was searching for a video adapter. Al took the initiative and called RadioShack before we left. They had a 6 foot S-video to RCA cable. Perfect! "That'll be $40, plus tax". Oh hell no (looking at their website, Radio Shack did sell what I wanted online, at competitive price, but that was discovered just a few minutes ago). Head into Circuit City. This is a store that's dedicates 40% of their floor space to televisions. Nope, they don't have what I need. They did have a $229.99 surge protector for home theaters. Yes, that's twenty thousand, nine hundred ninety nine pennies. I'll let you guess who makes it (I'll give you a hint, they sell a $1499.99 'voltage stabilizer' surge protector too).How about CompUSA? Al picked up a cool external bus powered USB to laptop disk drive converter for only $20, but alas I was without my video converter. Finally the last option, BestBuy, 4 minutes before closing. They had it, and for only $24.99. This thing should cost $10 at most, and that's being generous. It's just a little bit of plastic and metal. It shouldn't cost that much to develop and manufacture. Still, I was in a bind, so I bought it. Video has become way to damn complex on the consumer side. Composite video, component video, 4 pin s-video, 7 pin s-video, HDML, DVI, HDCP, IEEE 1394, 780p, 1080i, 480p, 480i...