The coldest winter I ever spent
Archive for the ‘Product Reviews’ Category.
I’m building up a long list of restaurants, dining and the like to go to in SF. When I tell friends where I am, they wax poetic and start telling me where I -have- to go! It’s far less fun to go to such places alone so I look forward to friends buzzing me up and asking to go out with me [hint hint!]
I’m offering a bunch of my stuff on Freecycle before I move, mostly to save on disposal charges and the hassle of hauling it to wherever. Turns out that giving stuff away is a hassle too.
I posted the stuff. In 15 minutes everything was spoken for. Hurray!
After 12 hours, I had 20+ responses. Everybody loves “free”. Yeah, whatever.
I was a bit bothered that some people emailed, asking for all kinds of details… details that I had already given in the photo or description. Apparently beggars can be choosers and even stupid choosers.
After a day, 5 of the 6 takers either didn’t return my call or backed out. Fuckers.
Now I’ve got to go down the list and try to find more takers… and more takers.
Next time, my OFFER letter will look like this:
I have a beautiful widget that can be yours if you can pick it up in [town] between the hours of [n] and [n] on [today or today +1]. Here is a photo of it: http:http://lee.org/[photo]
Email me with your name, phone number and a time to call in the next 12 hours and I’ll call you. If you aren’t available when I call, I’ll offer it to another.
I just want a cordless phone that works. That’s all I want. Well ok, that’s not entirely true. I want a cordless phone that has:
What I’ve found is a quagmire.
First off, our house is filled with crummy cordless phones. There is the one behind the bar that rings well enough but makes your callers sound like they are in a deep pit (it rubs the lotion on it’s skin). Upstairs, there is the analog 900 MHz phone. It sounds like shit too and it has crappy range. Then there is the Olympia OL-2410 we’ve been using; it sounds… not like “total crap” but just “poor” and the display recently went south.
What phone do I use? It’s the kind of phone that you can pummel an assailant with. It’s a corded Southwestern Bell Freedom Phone. It’s unapologeticly heavy, sounds great and feels good in your hand.
So, last week, the Olympia 2 handset phone system broke after 1 1/2 years of service. I called Staples and used the extended service plan I got to get an $80 credit. While I was waiting for the credit to arrive, I plugged in my old Uniden 900 MHz digital spread spectrum phone. This is a great phone. Great range, sounds like a corded phone, long battery life, enough heft in the handset to leave a welt on an assailant (especially since you can throw it across the room at him), a well designed answering machine… da da da…
The credit arrives so I go to Staples and pick up a Vtech 2.4 GHz phone. It was great except for it’s horrid range: less than 50 feet. Admittedly, compounding factors include that the range problem was between the 1st and second floors and we have 2 Wifi networks in the house. But shouldn’t these devices SHOULD be able to coexist in the same band?
I returned the phone.
I went back to Staples looking for a phone. After looking at all 30+ different phone models they had (think I’m exaggerating? Take a peek at Staples.com) I concluded that, unless I wanted to spend $220 on a phone, I wouldn’t get what I wanted. $220?!?!? $220?!?!?!? Two Trimline phones would cost $40 and work flawlessly for at least the next 20 years. And think how cordless phones have been around for 20 years now. Are you starting to smell a rat? I am.
So I forged my way over to Radio Shack. I was bedazzled by their selection as well. So many 
flavors of….. vanilla. With the help of a self-avowed over-achieving salesman, I picked out a $70 5.8 GHz phone. To be specific, it is a Maxus 5.8 Gigahertz Dual Handset, Radio Shack # 43-3585. I got it home and plugged one of the phones in. I didn’t dare take everything out of the box until I knew it worked because, I swear Radio Shack must employ master jigsaw puzzlers to pack their products. The corners of my mouth started to curl up as the dual-frequency hum of the dial-tone remained steady in my ear while I walked from room to room. Satisfied, I ripped the rest of the packaging open.
After everything was all set up, I opened the manual to figure out the intricacies of the Memories and such. It was there on page 13 that my heart died.
Conveniently, your cordless phone allows you to transfer outside calls from handset to handset simply by pressing DELETE/TRANS. Conversations will not be interrupted; only one handset at a time can talk with an outside caller. The second handset cannot go off hook to listen to conversations or make an outgoing call while the other handset is in use.
What?
You have got to be fucking kidding me.
Only one handset can be used at a time?! So why the frig did I buy a two handset phone? Is it a freaking backup for when the first explodes unexpectedly?
I threw everything in the box. The ecstatic guy at Radio Shack can repack it himself.
Tomorow I will go shopping for telephone system number 3.
Well,
if I’m going on a cross country road-trip, I’ve got to have tunes. Along the way, there will be spots where geography and the laws of electromagnetic propogation will conspire to reduce my musical choices down to God fearin’ Radio and God Fearin’ radio. So I got me a Pioneer DEH-P6700MP CD receiver with MP3 / WMA playback with Organic EL display. It is so tech. I just hope the display doesn’t pull a Trapper Keeper on me.
Quickie review: It sounds -nice-. The tuner is a tiny bit better than the tuner in the stock radio. MP3s sound sweet. It sounds very “full”. I’m a little worried that I’ll blow out my speakers if I crank the bass too much; the factory sound system has something like 12 watts, now we’re cranking 40+.
I freaked out when I was driving home in the dark. The display kept inverting every 10 seconds… first white on black, then black on white. It was as if my (ficticious) little brother was sitting next to me and flicking on a flashlight every couple seconds. After 5 minutes of that, I was screaming at the radio, “Cut it out! You’re driving me crazy!” I vowed that if I couldn’t find a fix, I’d have to return the radio. It turns out that…
Demo Modes: This unit has a Reverse Demo Mode and a Feature Demo Mode. In Reverse Demo Mode, if you do not perform an operation for a period of 30 seconds, the display begins reversing colors. It continues reversing colors every 10 seconds until a button is pushed…
What the frig is that “demo mode” for? Whatever. I turned it off. Chalk up 1 “win” for the day.
Here is how to disable the annoying “Demo” mode
There is another demo mode by pushing “Memory 6”. Read the comments for more…
One problem down, one to go. I just have to figure out how to make the screen about 1/2 as bright at night and I’ll love this radio.
(actually, I’d -love- if it could do .ogg or .flac but I’ll live. It just takes 5 minutes to convert an entire CD from one format to another.
update: Here is the Operation Manual for the Pioneer DEHP6700MP. And here is the Installation Manual.
Many years ago, there was this fantastic bit that they did on the Carol Burnett show.
The scene: two men wearing suits sitting in an office. Blueprints sit on the desk in front of them
Owner: I have to thank you again for doing such a great job on this building. 64 stories tall, and you built it faster than expected and well under budget. And you got more office space inside this building that we originally thought you could! You are a genius!
Architect: [looking visibly nervous and disturbed] Yes well, I’m glad that you like it. I’m just… Yes well, we did a very good job. I’m very… happy… Well you know, this building isn’t without its flaws.
Owner: Yes but, everything is looking really good. We can clean up any small flaws that were made with the money that we saved in the construction and the increased rents that I’ll be be getting.
Architect: [starting to look despondent] Yes I’m sure you’re right. We can work this out.
Owner: We can discuss these problems after lunch. But first I have to go to the bathroom. Where is it? I think I saw it on the way in. Is it down the hall and on the left?
Architect: No.
Owner: Where is it then? Is it on the other side of the building?
Architect: [putting his hand into his hands] No.
Owner: [looking quizzical, and then with the look of happy realization] Ah, I see, you only put bathrooms on every other floor to save money. That’s how you did it! So is the men’s bathroom one floor up?
Architect: [starting to pull his hair, and speaking with a whimper] No.
Owner: [starting to realize that something is up] Then is it one floor down?
Architect: [he looks up at the owner and silently nods “no”]
Owner: Two floors up?
Architect: [he stares into the owner’s eyes and doesn’t flinch]
Owner: Two floors down? Seven floors up? Ten floors down?!!
Architect: Just a few… small flaws. I only forgot that one thing. [He sets his head down on the desk and puts his hands over it]
That brings us to today’s fatal flaw.
Since the tape deck in my car broke several months ago, I’ve been looking for a replacement, a way to play recorded media. I tried using my Pocket PC and a radio transmitter as a poor man’s iPod but the user interface isn’t all that good for automobile use. I came across a really groovy 20 gigabyte MP3 player the the car. The Omnifimedia DMP1 Mobile Digital Media Player. It sells in some places for $600, but I came across it for $149. (I later found that it sells in many places for under $200) So I looked into it. It looks like a fantastic device. Rugged, reliable, attractive, and an all around great marriage of technologies. You can even download your music from your home network using WiFi, pretty cool.
I came across a review on Amazon.com that mentioned that the device has no fast-forward button. That sounded ridiculous. I considered how I would probably be listening to very long MP3s, things like four hour long concerts, hourlong radio programs, 30 minute long pod casts and the like. I found the manual online and gosh darn it, it’s true. Tape decks and CD players have fast-forward. You can skip forward with vinyl on a turntable. But not this device. The last device I’ve heard of it didn’t have a fast-forward button was an 8-track tape player.
What’s old is new again.
I just wanted to mention how enjoyable (and educational!) it is to read JWZ’s blog.
Just today I learned about exploding frogs in Germany, that the new pope bears an uncanny resemblance to Dr. Evil, Drew Barrymore isn’t afraid to poo in the woods, SciFi is doing a remake of Land of the Lost (one of my seminal TV shows, I’m still hot for chicks in flannel) and a bevy of other useful and fun things.
I went ahead and watched Matrix Revolutions while my PC was incommunicado. I’m disappointed in myself. The first time I saw it, just like Matrix Reloaded, I was disappointed by a number of things. Well, 90% of that disappointment was in my mind. The philosophy is tight, the action is great, the effects are wildly creative, tremendously realistic and groundbreaking (except, again, for some stretches of the CGI Neo & Smith combats) and it’s just a tremendous movie.
(see update below)
“24” jumped the shark in season 4 between 4 an 6 pm PST. Up until then, the scale of how things unfolded was large and seemless. The terrorists had comandeered 106 nuclear power plants with a remote override control. I had nightmarish visions, wondering feverishly if America’s nuclear power plant system could be so suseptable to a single directed attack.
And then…. Ta-da. only 6 plants were under attack. And then 1. Yes it’s sad that a nuclear plant had a meltdown but they averted a disaster that literally would have destroyed America and the people involved didn’t get so much as a wayward smile… instead, they instantly became worried about the next great threat… well, there weren’t any next great threats so they worried about other, much more petty things. At that moment, the walls of the set fell down for me. It stopped being real-ish and started resembling (just a little bit) like The A-Team with constant nonsensical action, snide remarks, pat cliches and cardboard acting.
The clincher was Jack’s phone number. In a recent episode, Jack gave somebody his cell phone number. It showed on-screen for a couple seconds, 310-597-3781. So of course I called it. How could I pass up an an Easter Egg like that?!
Hurumph! The message on the voicemail is:
[female vmail voice]The mailbox belonging to [man’s voice] Nextel phone for twenty-four [female vmail voice] is full. It cannot accept any more messages. Please try again later. Goodbye.
TVTome.com says that at one point, stagehands and such on the set of the show picked up the phone. That sounds tremendously cool… but now that the folks on the set have gotten bored of answering the hundreds of calls a day, they’ve just left the phone off with nothing fun for anyone else. At least have Mr. Sutherland or someone could leave a short message there.
update: After a bit of googling, I found several message threads talking about how they called and got through to people on the set. – – – – Ok…. I’ll admit it. That’s cool. There could have been better follow-through, but that was cool.
.
.
I still watch, but now it’s just for the sake of completeness.
Update 5-5-05
Grr. Ok, maybe I spoke too soon. Maybe I’m weak willed, but I just watched 2am-3am and it was terrific, like really terrific.
Ok, so they had a lull, and the pace had a weird hiccup, and there was a slipup and how the plot flowed in one storyline for a moment. But darn it, that’s good TV!
I saw The Matrix Reloaded tonight on HBO. The last time I saw it, in the theater, I was sorely disappointed. I think I blogged that a long while ago but I’m too lazy to look it up.
“Hype” is such a strange animal. You see, this time around, I really liked the movie. The action was eye poppingly realistic (except for the multiple-Agent-Smith parts where it was terribly noticeably computer animated), the storyline worked for me. And the thing I most suprised myself with was that I actually was kind of digging “The Explainer”.
The first time through this movie… wooo-eeee, was I disappointed. But there were so many fairly subtle things I cought this time through. For one, after Neo gained is “The One” powers, I was initially really disappointed that the only super-power he had was flying. An ability he used very well to run away on a number of occasions. I even talked about this with others and they gruffly agreed. But now I noticed that he had supa-fly X-Ray vision, could pass his hands though solid objects (like Trinity), could reanimate someone (Trinity again), could stop a sword being swung at him full-force with the pinky edge of his open hand taking the full force and only bleeding a few drops, fly at about 4,000 miles per hour, fight 100 Agent Smiths at a time without bleeding, fend off an Agent Smith “copy” attack, destroy squids with the power of his mind (and I now kinda understand how that would be possible).
I did slow-motion through a couple fight scenes and they were total poetry. When fighting multiple opponents, each opponent was generally fighting full speed. Neo just fought faster. I say this because in many kung-fu movies, when the hero fights multiple opponents, the opponents are usually fighting poorly and taking a long time between strikes. Not so in The Matrix Reloaded. I’ve got to say that this is a great testament to Keanu Reeves, who was at the center of most of these tightly choreographed scenes.
Trinity riding her bike in the wrong direction on the highway… I did slow-mo through it and couldn’t tell how they did it. I mean, I know there is CGI in there, but it was totally seemless.
So forget your expectations, watch it again and enjoy it!
I went 
I went to the East Coast Hobby Show in Fort Washington, PA looking to speak with manufacturers and remote control know-it-alls for a project. What a total frigging waste of time. The website and the advertising material blatantly lies about what kind of a show it is. It is billed as a “full line hobby show” but it is, in fact a train show.
Take a look at the photo of the poster I took (the odd vertical line in the photo is me merging two photos to get a good shot of the whole poster) Now don’t get me wrong, trains are well and good. But I came looking for… well, looking for what they said they had. Their sign says, “Over 200 of the largest manufacturers, distributors and publishers will be exhibiting.” Well, after I walked the entire show, I went to the info booth at the front and asked, “I was wondering if there are any manufacturer reps here like the sign says.”
The response, “There was one guy here yesterday.”
“Yeah, but yesterday was a dealers-only day.”
“Yeah, sorry.”
And it was a fine train show. There were hundreds of model train exhibitors, miles of track laid and thousands of 2″ tall trees and people and ity bity locomotives with fake smoke gleefully billowing out of them. There was a huge setup, taking up 100′ x 100′ with this amazing 9″ tall set (9″… is that HO scale? N? PG-13? I forget) with amazingly realistic Maersk and Sealand and double-decker containers just like I’ve seen rolling across the NJ Meadowlands. It was pretty cool…. except that it had NOTHING to do with what I was looking for. I drove a friggin hour and fourty-five minutes each way for nothin.
“R/C planes will be landing at the show” Ummm. where? The show is indoors. There was no space for indoor flight, no calendar of such events (no calendar at all, actually) and none of the 4 airplane exhibitors had anything that could fly.
Phoey.
Through all of this, a few good things still came to pass. While I was driving down there, a Computer Guy client of mine called me in need of help. I was happy to help, it let the time pass quicker. After a while, I told her where I was going and why. She came back with, “Oh really! My sister-in-law works with kids with C.P. They use all kinds of stuff like that. I’ll get you in touch with her!” Cool beans. There might have been a little kismet going on there..
After I realized the hobby show was a bust, I called PPG. She was in an art show called The Big Art Show in Asbury Park. Since I was “in the neighborhood” (a mere 1 1/4 hrs away) I decided to make a run for the coast! Also, my client was encouraging me to enjoy life a bit more :-). Well, the evening was quite a bit more fun than I thought it might be. I got to see PPG and Taco and Joe (who is also moving to the bay area soon) and meet some new nice folks. So there.