Archive for April, 2010

I have tried the inexpensive pedometers that click away the steps. I found these to be very inaccurate, plus as silly as it may sound, the clicking sound irritated me. The Omron HJ-122 is great. I walked with a friend using his GPS and my pedometer matched his distance calculator. It is silent and the functions (time of day, miles, aerobic steps, 7-day memory, calorie counter) make it more interesting.

It is a little larger and heavier than I wish, but not so much that it is a drawback. The fact that you can put it in you pocket is handy, plus the leash clip holds on tight. It would be nice if the battery compartment used a slide-and-click method as the timy screws aren’t easy. At least they give you a screwdriver to fit the tiny screws…an eyeglasses repair kit also works.
Royal Blue Paper Tablecover

I have it connected to my home wired network and am streaming movies from a Microsoft file server.

I am streaming the following files with PERFECT results:

1080p – MP4 with DTS in MKV container (PERFECT!)
720p – MP4 with DTS in MKV container (PERFECT!)
1080p – MP4 with AC3 in MKV container (PERFECT!)
720p – MP4 with AC3 in MKV container (PERFECT!)

1080p – XVID with AC3 in AVI container (PERFECT!)
720p – XVID with AC3 in AVI container (PERFECT!)
480p – XVID with DTS in AVI container (PERFECT!)
480p – XVID with AC3 in AVI container (PERFECT!)

I had many issues streaming initially using Window Media Player then TVersity to an Xbox. HD videos kept stalling with either solution. Also the fact that the Xbox could not stream my HD MKV movies it was annoying! Using TVersity to decode and re-encode MKV to the Xbox requires a fast computer and not the cleanest way of watching MKV files. Also, response to remote control works nice a fast!! Much faster than Xbox. Boot up time is almost instant!!!!

For some reason setting the video color to 12bits in the HDMI setting causes issues where the movies will stall. Also manually setting the HDMI video to the resolution and refresh rate of your TV seems to help. For example mine is set to 1080p with 60hz.

WD Live is so good I bought 2 more (one for sister and another for my mother).

The only improvement I would like is the ability to set a Favorites/Bookmark Folder so that it’s quicker to navigate to my movies located in my server. Right now I need to dig down several layers down to access my movies.
Western Digital WD TV

This is like a bad vhs bootleg in many regards.
I love nazareth though because they make great songs that are incredibly well done. This was a 1981 tour video and is comparible to what they were doing the year before when I saw them open for Frank Zappa in Wichita, Kansas. The video quality is very bad,
and this is unfortunate as the band does a great job in this show. The late drummer daryl sweet was still alive and he pounds his heart out. He later died of a cardiac arrest in 1999. This dvd is only nazareth completists and not for the casual viewer. There are some great dvd’s of this band out there and those should be bought first anyhow.
Nazareth Hair Of The

Bought this for my 12 year old daughter for her birthday, she had very little difficulty figuring out how to do anything and everything, she didnt even have to ask for help on how to use the wi-fi, next thing I know she is surfing the web…sending me text messages from her itouch…loading music like crazy from her friends, from her itunes account, for our existing music library…no problems. She plays games, downloads apps, watches videos, surfs the web…even gets homework help, uses the dictionary and thesarus. She has had it for a month now and still barely ever puts it down. Seems like this gadget’s capabilities are endless…I am buying one for my son next month for his birthday also! Then only complaints I have heard from her, and I have to concur is battery life, and the lack of accessories that come with the product. At least a wall charger included would be nice, and a decent set of headphones, its not like it is a cheap toy you paid $50 for!! But thanks to ebay, I spent about another $20 and got all the accessories, just need to invest in the HDMI cables so she can plug it in to a TV or monitor and watch movies on a bigger screen.
Trolley needle thread controller

My husband and I are in our 60’s and were introduced to the WII at our daughter’s and son-in-law’s this past Christmas. We really had fun playing the games and working with WII-FIT, so that’s what I wanted for my 60th birthday in February. We’re still have a great time and amazed at how much exercise it can be.

I kept looking until I could find it at the price I wanted. Same for the WII Fit, but it took a little longer to find it at a retail price. Even with the free shipping, I had WII Fit in two days – amazing!
Chapman Simco Ionizer VSE

My kids love the bandz. I get them from a local retailer here in town that charges $5 a pack for them. It beats payin for the shipping, but i am looking for a place that will make them in different shapes. I love the fact that these things do teach children the art of trading and how to actually “look over” something before you trade for it. My son traded a dino. for a broken sun. Now he will look over EVERY bandz before he even begins to talk about trading! To me….its a valuable life lesson.
Silly Bandz 24 Pack

I’ve only had my new iTouch for a few days but I already do love it. It was really easy to set up e-mail and internet with my home wireless program and I like the way the e-mail program works with AOL. The only thing I haven’t found yet is how to access my address book, if it is actually available. I was disappointed that I couldn’t charge the battery with my Bose dock that accepts my earlier iPod. I was also disappointed that I couldn’t import videos I shot with my digital camera. The iTouch doesn’t seem to recognize the file format. I do have CuCuSoft which converts videos for iPod and I’m hoping it works the way it did for my older iPod. I am disappointed that you can’t buy a machine like this that allows you to use free WiFi and have a cell phone in one device without paying for a data plan, but for now this machine is the best product out there for these purposes. I love how beautifully my photo collection is displayed, including the ability to rotate the device to best accomodate landscape/portrait shots. And the speaker for playing music or any other video file is amazing for such a small device. It actually sounds better than the speaker on my wife’s laptop. I can’t wait to search for aps as there is some really cool stuff available. The free WiFi finder is one of the first I’m going to download. I tried to import my calendar and contacts from my Palm Pilot, Tungsten E, but since I went from Windows XP to Vista my Palm desktop can no longer save those files in a format that can be exported to iPod. So I’m going to have to re-create everthing manually. What a shame software designers don’t think about this stuff. Overall, however this is one amazing machine and I can’t wait to spend more time using it.
REAMERISMS Motivations for the

This was a fast easy purchase and I love the program. I highly recommend this seller!
Retractable USB Cable for

This is the best magazine about New York and is a must for anybody who is near the city. It tells you just about everything that is going on and keeps on top of local issues in a way other magazines/papers do not.
Time Out New York

The friction mount does exactly what it is supposed to do–it holds the GPS steady on the dashboard without slipping or leaving a mark on the windshield.
Open discovery an integrated