Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Philips SHS390 Headphones Review
I just got a pair of the Philips SHS390 behind-the-neck wired headphones, and I think they're great. The price is definitely right at about $14 at WalMart, and the sound is really nice. Additionally, I've now tested them on a hard run, and I can tell you that you don't even notice them on your head. They don't have any strange sounds from the movement of the cord, or from the cord brushing up against you. The bass response is also really nice - they produce MUCH more bass than you would expect. There are LOTS of more expensive "headphones for an active lifestyle" out there, but these fit the bill very nicely for me.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Canon SD890is Digital Elph Review
Bottom line: great camera.
My first digital camera was one of the first Canon Elphs (I forget the model), and I loved it. Since then I've tried an Olympus 720SW and a Kodak EasyShare V1253, neither of which are very good in my opinion (the Olympus is slow and takes horrible pictures; the Kodak is a little faster and takes better pictures, but the "HD Video" that they advertise locks up completely after about 10 seconds, the pictures still aren't great, the startup time is slow, and it requires its own connector/cable).
Happily, this new SD890 has me smiling again. Its power-on-to-first-pic time is excellent (not the fastest out there, but plenty fast enough for me), the pictures are great, and the video works as it should. It's just fast, easy to use, and it works as it should (I can't say those things about the Olympus or the Kodak). I'm happy once again to have a camera that I want to carry around and use.
My first digital camera was one of the first Canon Elphs (I forget the model), and I loved it. Since then I've tried an Olympus 720SW and a Kodak EasyShare V1253, neither of which are very good in my opinion (the Olympus is slow and takes horrible pictures; the Kodak is a little faster and takes better pictures, but the "HD Video" that they advertise locks up completely after about 10 seconds, the pictures still aren't great, the startup time is slow, and it requires its own connector/cable).
Happily, this new SD890 has me smiling again. Its power-on-to-first-pic time is excellent (not the fastest out there, but plenty fast enough for me), the pictures are great, and the video works as it should. It's just fast, easy to use, and it works as it should (I can't say those things about the Olympus or the Kodak). I'm happy once again to have a camera that I want to carry around and use.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Acer Aspire One and Asus Eee 1000HD Review - Verdict: Great
I don't know why Jason didn't write about the Acer (I bought it from him), but that's life. Here's my take on these two laptops.
I bought the Aspire One just to check out this whole netbook craze, and I fell in love with it. I brought it to my brother's house, and his fiancee liked it so much we went to the store and got her the Eee, and it's just perfect for her. Either one is perfect because it's just enough computer for ALL of her everyday tasks. And either one is perfect for ALL of the everyday computing tasks performed by 90-95% of all computer users. Really. They're both just the right size, have 1GB of RAM, 120GB hard drives, Windows XP Home, and a CPU that can handle MS Office applications and anything that runs in a browser.
The HUGE selling point is that these netbooks can do everything you need AND they're small and light enough to take anywhere. They make it easy to use a computer. If you have a wireless network in your house, you'll find that you just take it wherever you're going.
Each machine has some advantages over the other:
Aspire one: Built-in webcam, mouse buttons on side of touchpad, dual-core Atom processor
Eee: Very high resolution screen (though to see anything higher than 1024x700 or so you have to pan around), mouse buttons on bottom (normal place) of touchpad, Celeron M processor
Those are the main differences between them as far as I'm concerned. And the processor difference doesn't seem to matter - they both feel snappy.
I still need to keep my Thinkpad T61p for its 8GB of RAM and dual hard drives, but I plan to bring my Aspire One with me on trips because it's just so easy and convenient to use.
If you're considering a laptop, I would STRONGLY urge you to look at the netbooks out there. There's a good chance that you can find one that will do everything you need for a lower price (and with a much smaller size) than a traditional laptop.
I bought the Aspire One just to check out this whole netbook craze, and I fell in love with it. I brought it to my brother's house, and his fiancee liked it so much we went to the store and got her the Eee, and it's just perfect for her. Either one is perfect because it's just enough computer for ALL of her everyday tasks. And either one is perfect for ALL of the everyday computing tasks performed by 90-95% of all computer users. Really. They're both just the right size, have 1GB of RAM, 120GB hard drives, Windows XP Home, and a CPU that can handle MS Office applications and anything that runs in a browser.
The HUGE selling point is that these netbooks can do everything you need AND they're small and light enough to take anywhere. They make it easy to use a computer. If you have a wireless network in your house, you'll find that you just take it wherever you're going.
Each machine has some advantages over the other:
Aspire one: Built-in webcam, mouse buttons on side of touchpad, dual-core Atom processor
Eee: Very high resolution screen (though to see anything higher than 1024x700 or so you have to pan around), mouse buttons on bottom (normal place) of touchpad, Celeron M processor
Those are the main differences between them as far as I'm concerned. And the processor difference doesn't seem to matter - they both feel snappy.
I still need to keep my Thinkpad T61p for its 8GB of RAM and dual hard drives, but I plan to bring my Aspire One with me on trips because it's just so easy and convenient to use.
If you're considering a laptop, I would STRONGLY urge you to look at the netbooks out there. There's a good chance that you can find one that will do everything you need for a lower price (and with a much smaller size) than a traditional laptop.
Verizon HTC Touch Pro Review - My verdict: Skip it
I just got a Verizon HTC Touch Pro yesterday, and I'm already returning it after attempting to use it for several hours. I was VERY excited about getting this phone, but it's just horrible. Beyond bad. Horrible. Don't get one, and here are some reasons why:
Verizon's version has less memory than other versions of the phone.
I don't know if it's the memory, but this phone is SLOWWWWWWWWW. I've seen video reviews of other versions of it, and it looks absolutely snappy. Verizon's version (maybe because of the memory, but I don't know) is absolutely NOT snappy. That could be the reason they disable TouchFLO3D by default, but even that doesn't help. Doing normal things with the device (close a window, open an application like Calc, etc.) normally takes several seconds (!). The whole experience is terrible.
"Sluggish" is too kind a word for this device - it's completely unusable.
So I'm back on my trusty BBerry Curve. I'll probably give the Storm a try once a newer firmware is available (many of the initial reviews complain about frequent crashes, and that's not something I want to deal with).
Verizon's version has less memory than other versions of the phone.
I don't know if it's the memory, but this phone is SLOWWWWWWWWW. I've seen video reviews of other versions of it, and it looks absolutely snappy. Verizon's version (maybe because of the memory, but I don't know) is absolutely NOT snappy. That could be the reason they disable TouchFLO3D by default, but even that doesn't help. Doing normal things with the device (close a window, open an application like Calc, etc.) normally takes several seconds (!). The whole experience is terrible.
"Sluggish" is too kind a word for this device - it's completely unusable.
So I'm back on my trusty BBerry Curve. I'll probably give the Storm a try once a newer firmware is available (many of the initial reviews complain about frequent crashes, and that's not something I want to deal with).
Thursday, June 26, 2008
4GB SODIMMs are shipping!
I just got an 8GB kit for my laptop from:
http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote.asp?part_no=KVR667D2S5K28G&vid=229&src=F
and it works GREAT. I've got a Thinkpad t61p (Santa Rosa) running Vista Ultimate x64, and it sees all 8GB. Additionally (and most importantly), VMWare Workstation also sees all of the memory and allows me to allocate it to a virtual machine.
http://www.compsource.com/ttechnote.asp?part_no=KVR667D2S5K28G&vid=229&src=F
and it works GREAT. I've got a Thinkpad t61p (Santa Rosa) running Vista Ultimate x64, and it sees all 8GB. Additionally (and most importantly), VMWare Workstation also sees all of the memory and allows me to allocate it to a virtual machine.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
You can get an 8-core Mac Pro with 16GB RAM and 2.57TB Disk for $3600
I was just looking for a computer to run some large VMs and came up with a good deal on a Mac Pro, as long as you get your upgrades from somewhere other than Apple. I found a refurbished Mac Pro with dual quad-core 2.8GHz Xeons and 320GB drive for $2399 (a brand new one starts about $400 more). I then looked at www.a1acomputing.com (it was one of the first in my Google results), I found that they have a 16GB kit for 800MHz FB-DIMMs at $631.56 and 750GB drives for $174.89 each. If you add all that up (counting 3 of the drives), you get $3555.23 (if you started with a new one, the total would still be under $4000 at $3955.23). To get an idea of how great a deal that is, if you started with the same new Mac Pro and added the options at the price they're charging, the total would be ... $7199 (!!) - TWICE as much! And the savings are even more amazing if you were to go with 32GB of RAM. The smart route would total $5635.19 (or $6035.19 using a new Mac Pro), while the all-Apple route would total $12799.
There are lots of people out there who have no use for this much RAM, and I can appreciate that fact. So this post isn't for those people. I currently have two laptops (Macbook Pro and Thinkpad T61) each with 4GB of RAM, and my latest need is maxing both of them out, running just one VM each (each VM REQUIRES 3.2GB of RAM, as in the install of the software FAILS with anything less than this). Some of the software that I deal with just needs LOTS of RAM, and a system like the above would be worth the money for ME. But I'm just going to wait to see if I continue to need this much RAM before I actually pull the trigger.
There are lots of people out there who have no use for this much RAM, and I can appreciate that fact. So this post isn't for those people. I currently have two laptops (Macbook Pro and Thinkpad T61) each with 4GB of RAM, and my latest need is maxing both of them out, running just one VM each (each VM REQUIRES 3.2GB of RAM, as in the install of the software FAILS with anything less than this). Some of the software that I deal with just needs LOTS of RAM, and a system like the above would be worth the money for ME. But I'm just going to wait to see if I continue to need this much RAM before I actually pull the trigger.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
RANT
That's right, I'm patriotic - no matter who it upsets. I was reading about OLPC, a great initiative - but don't developing areas need things like stable power grids, clean water, sewers and no fear from civil war? It reminds me of Ferris Beuller, "I asked for a car and got a computer". I asked for a clean drink of water and got a computer.
I'm of the opinion that as Americans, we have the responsibility to take care of the United States first and then we can go out and help others. How can you tell others what to do when your own house isn't in order?
Technology is great, I've made a career out of it. However the only way I made it this far is because I had a good education. Why should living in a different county in a state make a difference on the quality of education. My 2 cents is that here in the United States, we need to look in the mirror and see what is wrong with our country and stop being politically correct about it.
Nobody is guaranteed anything other than life, liberty and the persuit of happiness. Pursuit of happiness doesn't mean you are happy - wealthy and wise...
Black, white, Hispanic, whatever other races you can think of - look first to yourself for help, leave the government out of it. The government will make sure the country is safe and can trade, you need to make sure you get a job and take responsibility for your actions.
I'm of the opinion that as Americans, we have the responsibility to take care of the United States first and then we can go out and help others. How can you tell others what to do when your own house isn't in order?
Technology is great, I've made a career out of it. However the only way I made it this far is because I had a good education. Why should living in a different county in a state make a difference on the quality of education. My 2 cents is that here in the United States, we need to look in the mirror and see what is wrong with our country and stop being politically correct about it.
Nobody is guaranteed anything other than life, liberty and the persuit of happiness. Pursuit of happiness doesn't mean you are happy - wealthy and wise...
Black, white, Hispanic, whatever other races you can think of - look first to yourself for help, leave the government out of it. The government will make sure the country is safe and can trade, you need to make sure you get a job and take responsibility for your actions.
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