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Even Better Chinese Dictionary
I’ve been using “Mandarin Tools”:http://mandarintools.com, but lately I’ve found that “MDBG.net”:http://mdbg.net works even better. Thats mainly because you can feed it a whole chinese sentence and it shows you the pinyin and english dictionary entries. With Mandarin tools, you have to split up the sentences because it doesn’t parse very well. MDBG.net in Advanced Word…
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Desktop Pets
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Blackberry Games
Blackberry has a few free games on “mobile.blackberry.com”:http://mobile.blackberry.com, but “pinstack”:http://blackberryforums.pinstack.com/downloads.html?s=&catid=2&page=1&pp=30&sort=30 has a bunch more with Tetris being the coolest. You can also get free Java games from “Mobilerated.com”:http://www.mobilerated.com/rim-blackberry-8100-pearl-games.html powered by performancing firefox
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Blackberry Music and Video Codecs
Here is what the blackberry can playback according to “Pinstack”:http://blackberryforums.pinstack.com/6354-comprehensive_blackberry_pearl_8100_guide.html and there is a freeware encoder for video that “Pinstack”:http://blackberryforums.pinstack.com/6948-original_video_encoding_8100_a.html recommends. h3. Music The following Audio formats (including extensions) are supported: – ACC – audio compression formats AAC, AAC+, and EAAC+ – AMR – Adaptive Multi Rate-Narrow Band (AMR-NB) speech coder standard Supported AMR-NB rates…
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Blackberry Pearl Tips and Tricks
“Pinstack”:http://blackberryforums.pinstack.com/f78-blackberry_pearl_8100.html has an amazingly helpful list of things for the Pearl. The biggest and the incredibly bizarre keyboard shortcuts. They aren’t intuitive anymore because the keyboard is so much smaller. Keyboard Shortcuts Basic Shortcuts The following shortcuts can be used in many applications: – To move the cursor, roll the trackball. – To exit a…
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DST 2007 Patches for Blackberry
What a pain, this shift in Daylight Savings Time has burned more IT cycles for less benefit than anything I can remember. In any case, a Blackberry is completely messed up, so check “Blackberry”:http://www.blackberry.com/DST2007/patch/index2.shtml for the patching needed. You have to download something to your PC and then sync it to your blackberry. And the…
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Camcorder Recommendations
Only I could go from looking for a simple camcorder for someone to suddenly finding myself on a professional film production site, looking at 4 pound broadcast quality cameras, but heck, that’s me. “Videomaker”:http://www.videomaker.com/article/12964/ has a great list of top products for video types at the high end. A pretty good list of things if…
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HD Camcorders
Well we are the cusp of a camcorder revolution. In thinking about the next generation to get, the Canon Optura 100MC really did last a long time. It was 480i/60 standard definition that used miniDV tapes. I actually made quite a few videos considering what a pain it was to capture. A fast computer really…
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Moving User files from c:\ to e:\
On our machines, the C:\ drive is fast and small and the e:\ drive is the user directory, one thing that is quite hard is to make sure the various user files in c:\documents and settings move to e:\. You can do a simple thing which is to Right click on the My Documents and…
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Toyota Prius
What do you do when an MDX gets 12mpg in the city and 14mpg average. Seems like everyone I know is trying to figure this out. A Highlander (OK, but the third seat is way too crowded and it is a bit noisy). For true econo-cars, 2007 Prius and the Option 6 package is kind…
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Laptop Hard Drive
Our trusty old ASUS M5p that runs the digital photo printing and scanning setup at home has a failing 60GB hard drive. Nice that this SMART feature tells you that and the thing has been hanging. Its a nice notebook with the Dothan processor, so seems a shame to scrap it. It has a 2.5″…
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Prius Now or Later
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Etymotic Accessories
I’ve got a set of ER4-Ps, ER4-Ss and ER-6s from Etymotic. They are all really superb in terms of quality, but over time, I’ve lost the various components. like pouches and bags. “Etymotic”:https://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er4-acc.aspx itself sells the little pouches for $4 each and also has a winder for the cables that is very handy since the…
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10K Bonus Miles flying from US to China
MP Registration: U.S. – China Bonus Miles Offer If you fly from the US to China this spring, you get a bonus 10,000 miles on United. You have to register your MIleage Plus number though.
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MoGo Mouse BT
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Camera Plates
! I got the really amazing Gitzo 2530 and the Markins Emilie Q3, but I didn’t realize that for these high end tripods, they have something called a “camera plate” that adapts the little thingy on the camera to the tripod. It is called a quick release plate and I gather you need one for…
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Compact Flash Update
I bought a 4GB Sandisk Extreme III card last June when I got my camara, now its pretty clear that a single card is a little scary so time to get a backup. Tong Family Blog: Fast Compact Flash Cards Rob Galbraith did actual in camera testing with the Digital Rebel XT to see what…
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Laptops Lenovo ThinkPad T60 vs. Sony EZ vs. MacBook Pro
Well, our kids are ready for their own laptops now. So the standard one is: “Lenovo T60”:http://www.notebookreview.com/price/default.asp?productFamilyID=720&ref=list&display=priceDetail. Although the review is for the year old T60 1951 that had the older Core Duo, the latest ones on Lenovo’s site use the newer Core 2 Duo. It is a bit heavy at 5.4lbs but should be…
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Photo Printers Canon PIXMA Pro9000 and Epson Stylus Photo R1800
Well, its time to look at photo printers again, PC Mag has some good reviews: * “Canon Pixma iP4300″:http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2086327,00.asp. It is only $90-100 and is a good choice for a standard printer. In terms 13×19” photos, I’ve used the Canon i9900 for years, so what’s the updates to printers: * “Canon PIXMA Pro9000 and Pro9500”:http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/canon_pro9000.html…
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Eagle Creek Tarmac ES 22
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Giro Omen and Fuse Helmet Sizing and Pricing
The “Giro”:http://giro.com website doesn’t help very much when it comes to sizing. I found tht I fit nicely into a Large Fuse or a Medium/Large Omen. “MBStores”:http://mbstores-store.stores.yahoo.net/gifuskiandsn.html has a good size chart and it shows the Fuse at 14.5 oz. | Model Name | S | M | L | XL | XXL | |…
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Lonely Planet the Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World
!<http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/1741046297.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg!:http://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Planet-Travel-Book-Journey/dp/1741046297/ref=pd_sim_b_1/105-1358155-8349247. We got this book from Thompson Family Adventures and I couldn’t put it down. It is completely fascinating to go through every country in the world one page at time in alphabetically order. Goes with “1,000 Places to Go Before You Die”:http://www.amazon.com/000-Places-See-Before-You/dp/0761104844 as a way to see the world. powered by performancing firefox
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displays are also changing
AppleInsider | Next-gen MacBook Pro to shine brighter Confirming an earlier but widely discounted report from Taiwan-based DigiTimes, faithful industry sources say the new pro-oriented systems will mark the start of a gradual transition away from cold cathode fluorescent backlights (CCFLs) and towards LED backlights for the Mac maker. Thus far, those sources say Apple…
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MacBook Ultracompact
Also at the WWDC in August, Apple is going to launch a subnotebook. AppleInsider | Apple to re-enter the sub-notebook market This new tiny MacBook, people familiar with the project say, remains in development ahead of its target launch date around the time WWDC rolls around mid-year. It will be both lighter and more compact…
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Next Macbook
I’ve been wondering when the next Macbook would ship. The days of Intel jamming new processors out every month seems to be over. The net is that we won’t see a new Macbook until this coming May, so if you need to buy one youare reasonably safe. The improvements are from Intel and will mainly…
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Gitzo GT-2530 Tripod, Arca Swiss Monoball B1 and Markins Q-Ball Q3 Emille
I’ve been using a cheap monopod mainly for a small camcorder, but with all the photos I’ve been taking especially the night shots of Shanghai and other locations, I need a better and fuller tripod. As with most things, the best value is to buy a slightly better one that will last a while. I’d…
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Power Toys for XP
Well Vista may be here, but for those of us not upgrading (until the next machine comes preinstalled), here are some cool utilities that don’t get much press, but which are pretty useful. They are called “PowerToys”:http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx and amongst them are: * RAW Image viewer. If you are using Canon or Nikon high end cameras,…
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Tamarack and Ski Accessories
Just spent a week with Dave over at “Tamarack”:http://www.tamarackidaho.com/, this is a new resort that’s opened in Idaho. It is just three years old and they are still building it. We really lucked out on the snow there. Got 11 inches of powder one day and also had the great chance to learn from Carrie…
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Chinese English Dictionaries
No one has written the perfect application yet for learning Chinese IMHO. It should have both Chinese, Pinyin and English and you should be able to highlight anything and see the translations. The closest seems to be: # DictCN. This is a Firefox plug in that really works well for English to Chinese, but seems…
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Fuji F10 Manual and Drivers
This is now an old camera, but for some reason the Fuji F10 camera requires its own USB driver and you can get it from the “Download”:http://www.fujifilmusa.com/JSP/fuji/epartners/ServiceSupportProduct.jsp?prodcat=833110. powered by performancing firefox