Other Tech

Q. Can you please tell me the maximum length for component and HDMI cables? Eric Paul via email

Jeremy Levee of Houston, Texas, wrote to say that he enjoyed my "Step by Step" column on how to mount a flat-panel TV. But he realized that a TV on the wall is just artwork until you've fed it the proper cabling and asked if I might shed some light on wiring behind walls. Jeremy, your wish is my command!

Buffalo's favorite sons the Goo Goo Dolls are at it again, this time barnstorming on a cross-country shed tour to support the ever-catchy Let Love In (Warner Bros.) while teamed up with the Counting Crows. Singer/songwriter and all-around nice Goo guy Johnny Rzeznik recently took some time out from the road to chat Web-exclusively with S&V.

For every job, there is the "right" tool. Just as you wouldn't grab a hammer to open a bottle of champagne, you wouldn't install a front projection system in a sunny room. DirecTV subscribers, unfortunately, have always needed an extra, often unwanted, "tool" in the form of a standalone satellite receiver.

• Part One Are Discs Obsolete?

• Part Two The Artists' Perspective

• Part Three Gluttons for Punishment: How the Music Industry Continues to Sabotage Its Own Future

As a performer, you've done everything. Do you prefer TV, movies, singing, or the stage? I would say the Broadway theater - it's so much at the heart of things. But I just signed on to do a new sitcom on NBC, Twenty Good Years, and it's incredibly fun. We're going to have a ball on that show. It's a real treat to vary my diet.

Recently I sat down with Captain Jean-Luc Picard, in the guise of actor Patrick Stewart. He was out of uniform that morning because we were in a roundtable discussion about X-Men: The Last Stand.