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Computer VGA to Component Output
OK, if you’ve got a flat panel TV and want to project say some movies from your computer, how do you do it. You need a magic box called a “VGA to TV Convertor”:http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/PC-TV_video_adapter.html. Ram has one for $99 that takes VGA analog output and then converts it into component video (those three cables) or…
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PSP Games, Nubs and Cases
Calvin got so bored on his last trip that I finally dug out a PSP I had buried in a gadget drawer and gave it to him. Now he really likes it for trips, so time to accessorize. “Pricegrabber”:http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=1935 has popular ones and “PSP411”:http://psp411.com has great reviews. * Memory Stick Pro 4GB. You can now…
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Best Media Player
Well, I use a huge variety of these, from the standard Windows Media Player to everything else. Net, net, the easiest to use is for me “Zoom Player”:http://www.inmatrix.com/. The main reason is that it automatically installs all the various codecs that you need automatically and they are the really great open source ones like ffdshow…
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Apple share is 4th for notebooks and 5th for desktops
Mac Rumors: Apple Mac Rumors and News You Care About Bloomberg provided March 2007 marketshare numbers from the NPD Group. It revealed that for March 2007, Apple was ranked 4th for notebook sales (9.9%), 5th for Desktop sales (7.7%), and #1 for MP3 Player Sales (68.9%). BetaNews provides a historical perspective on these numbers. Apple’s…
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Best Workflow for Raw images uses DXO, CS Pro and Noise Ninja
With all these plugins around for photos that do the same thing, it is a little confusing what to use. Here is one fellows view on what to do Bluejake: Westside, Looking Northeast from 31st and 10th I use DxO Optics Pro to correct lens distortion (but I don’t use the other features). This fixes…
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Top PSP Games
Calvin really likes the PSP but has lost all his games. “Gamespot”:http://www.gamespot.com/games.html?type=top_rated&platform=1024&page_type=games&tag=subnav;top_games. Sid Maeier’s Pirates got an 8.6 and is wonderful on the PC. Powered by ScribeFire.
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New MacBooks next week or certainly by June WWDC
Mac Rumors: Apple Mac Rumors and News You Care About ThinkSecret updates with claims that both MacBook and MacBook Pro updates are coming sooner than expected. (As an aside, “Anandtech”:http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=2985&p=9 has seen no real world performance improvement with moving to this chipset, which means that used or refurbished MacBook Pro’s could be great buys, the…
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Citizen Eco-Drive Global Radio Controlled Watch
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United Mileage promotions
United is always running strange promotions that require signup. The latest is that if you register at “http://www.united.com/chinabonus”:http://www.united.com/chinabonus, you’ll get up to 10,000 mileage points if you fly to China before June 30. Turns out there are lots of way to track this. “MileMaven.com”:http://milemaven.com is an awesomely cool site that shows promotions by the various…
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itunes cannot run because it has detected a problem with your audio configuration
Keep getting this error and Apple says that you need to “uninstall”:http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304424 and reinstall Quicktime. Let’s see if that helps. Powered by ScribeFire.
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Helen and John Don’t Shop…
Our buddies Helen and John have a resolution, they aren’t shopping for anything for a year. The Anti-Shopping Year. Good luck to them! Powered by ScribeFire.
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Type in a private jet tail number or airline flight number to find out where it is
If you type in any tail number of any private jet from “Landings.com”:http://www.landings.com/_landings/pages/search.html you can search for any N-prefix which are US registered. Then if you type into google, the tail number, you’ll get the “registry.faa.gov”:http://registry.faa.gov site to tell you about the aircraft and then you can use “Flightaware.com”:http://flightaware.com/live/ to tell you live where the…
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Conde Nast Traveler Gold List 2007
The “Gold List 2008”:http://www.concierge.com/bestof/goldlist/2007 An incredible useful list of great restaurants, hotels and around the world. Its pretty accurate actually because it is a reader poll. At least the areas that I know, San Francisco, LA, New York, “Shanghai:http://www.concierge.com/bestof/goldlist/2007/regions/asia/china/1shanghai I’d agree for instance that the “Pudong “Shangri-La”:http://www.concierge.com/bestof/goldlist/2007/hotels/detail?id=297&lastUrl=/bestof/goldlist/2007/regions/asia/china/1shanghai&label=Shanghai%20hotels is probably the best in Shanghai !>http://www.concierge.com/images/cnt/lists/goldlist07/asia/china/pudong_shangrila/shanghai_hotel_008p.jpg! I…
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Component vs. DVI vs. HDMI
DVI vs. HDMI vs. Component Video — Which is Better? First, to clear away one element that can be confusing: DVI and HDMI are exactly the same as one another, image-quality-wise. The principal differences are that HDMI carries audio as well as video, and uses a different type of connector, but both use the same…
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United Red Carpet Clubs with Showers or Arrival Suites
When you arrive in an overnight, it sure is nice to clean up and feel fresh. Here are the shower facilities as I know them and you can kind of glean things from Skytrax “Lounge reviews”:http://www.airlinequality.com/Product/Lounges.htm United Red Carpet Clubs in Hong Kong, London Heathrow, Sydney and Tokyo Narita have showers. With first class, you…
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Rootkit
Maybe I have a “rootkit”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rootkit and not a virus. Despite all my best efforts, I can’t seem to get rid of this thing that creates a six digit EXE in c:\windows\temp. Wikipedia actually says that if you have one, the best thing to do is to reinstall since a rootkit modifies so much stuff. Wow,…
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iPhone shipping late June
Mac Rumors: Apple Mac Rumors and News You Care About Reuters reports that an AT&T executive confirmed that the iPhone will be arriving “at the end of June”. “Our expectations are good. Our testing has been good,” said AT&T Chief Operating Officer Randall Stephenson. “The iPhone is on target to launch in June.” This is…
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Airlines
“AirlineQuality.com”:http://www.airlinequality.com/. I haven’t used this site in a while because I’ve mainly been stuck on United. But just this month, I’ve been on Qantas, JAL and probably Cathay soon, so it bears some checking. Some quick reviews for me and also see “FlatSeats.com”:http://flatseats.com which only reviews the high end seats. # ANA. Wow, this is…
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Roguecleaner and Rising.com.cn
As I mentioned had a really bad case of spyware. No US program would get rid of it (including Yahoo’s version of Webroot, Spybot, Trend Micro, etc). Finally got rid of it with a set of Chinese programs. First is Rogue Cleaner (“Onlinedown.net”:http://www.onlinedown.net/soft/42382.htm) or ????????. There is also an online virus checker that we had…
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Send on Behalf
I really don’t know why it is so complicated, but if you want to be able to have someone send a message on behalf of you and look at your email, there is a complicated process to get Outlook and Exchange to do it. This method from “Microsoft”:http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA011367671033.aspx?pid=CL100626971033 seems to sort of work. Powered by…
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HD Camcorders
!>http://images.camcorderinfo.com/images/upload/Image/Canon/Canon%20HV20/Product%20Pictures/Canon_HV20vsSony_HDR-HC7_Right.jpg! What a difference just a month makes. Since the last HD Camcorders, Sony, Canon and Panasonic have all introduced new models, this changes the decisions quite a bit. Using Camcorderinfo, here are the latest tradeoffs and selection: # “Canon HV-20”:http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Canon-HV20-Camcorder-Review.htm. $1100 MSRP. Canon announced a bigger camera called the HV-20. Unlike the HV-20, this…
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FASB FIN 46
OK, this probably should go into a work blog, but this is the one I have open. We are looking at a company where FASB FIN 46 makes a difference. It is about the consolidation of interest from special purpose vehicles. Its designed to prevent the Enron-like off-balance sheet financing which killed it. Here is:…
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mp3tag
“MP3Tag”:http://www.mp3tag.de/ is a nice freeware program that lets you take MP3 tags and change the filename. I like to do this so that all my music is really nicely laid out. Powered by ScribeFire.
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Apartments in Shanghai
“Lakeville Regency”:http://www.metropolis-sh.com/plink/as-Lakeville%20Regency.htm. This is supposed to be one of the nicest complexes in Shanghai. The second section has just been completed. Powered by ScribeFire. The Lakeville Regency
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Sustainable Seafood
“The World Wildlife Fund”:http://wwf.org.hk/eng/conservation/seafood/guide.php has a guide for the right sustainable fish to eat in Hong Kong and the Pacific. This is mainly for Hong Kong, but is not bad for the rest China. You can print out a wallet sized guide. If you live in the US, then “Seafood WATCH”:http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp which the Monterey Bay…
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Sydney for a few days
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cool sites for geeks and foodies
I’ll translate them in a little bit, but here are some good Chinese reference sites: ?????? PConline.com.cn->IT?? ????. This is a really great site for geek information on everything from computers to cell phones to printers and camera.s ???? – ?????. This is a review site for restaurants and everything else in China. User input…
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Best Shanghai Restaurants
Even six months ago, it was hard to get many English language reviews of Shanghai restaurants, but thanks to blogging, that’s rapidly changing. Here are some sources based on a query of google:”Best Shanghai Restaurants”: “Frommer’s:http://www.frommers.com/destinations/shanghai/0717010028.html. Not surprising that this traditional print book has a top listing. Their “best bets”:http://www.frommers.com/destinations/shanghai/0717020003.html are some traditional ones including…
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Carrying a Tripod
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Latest Music
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