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High Def Camcorders
!>http://images.tomshardware.com/2006/08/02/hv10_threequarter_screen_open.jpg! Canon launches compact “full HD” camcorder | TG Daily. It is literally raining HD camcorders now. Both Sony and Canon have come out with new small camcorders that record in 1040i. How cool is that. The big debate is whether or not the Canon is 1080i or 1080p. I’m betting 1080i. Following Sony’s HDR-UX1…
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Current Canon Rebates
“Canon”:http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=PromotionsAct has a list of all its rebates, since it looks like I actually got all three rebates I applied for, it gives me some confidence. Right now, they’ve ended their spring rebates for cameras (whcih were quite good nominal really at $50 for $1,600 lenses), but were amazing for cameras. So I’ll have to…
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Web Rebates
Wow, I found this site by looking at a Canon Rebate form and seeing the “web-rebates.com”:http://web-rebates.com URL, it turns out that if you put your last name and address in, it will find lots and lots of different rebates. At least Canon, PriceGrabber, Vonage and Samsung all use the same service. I could check on…
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Calling US from China
Figuring out the cheapest way to call the US when you are living in China is incredibly complicated. The main issue is that you don’t really want to spend $2/minute with your cell phone while you are there, but you do want a US phone number so someone can call you. Here is the best…
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Scudder Global Fund is now DWS Global Thematic Stock (SCOBX)
“Scudder Global Fund”:http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=SCOBX&t=my This was one of the first investments that I ever owned. Got it in 1998 and then later sold it, it is just great the way that Yahoo keeps track of all this kind of stuff. As far as I can tell the fund was essentailly flat since 1998 its high point…
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Kid Games
“Gamesrankings.com”:http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/default_PC/5 is a great site that averages reviews across the web. Here are some games I found that I think the kids might like: * “Sports Games”:http://www.download.com/Sports/2001-2117_4-0.html?tag=dir. Free downloads are key so they can try the games. Cnet has a great collection of sports games. * “Kids Games”:http://www.download.com/3150-2102_4-0-1-0.html?qt=&author=&titlename=&desc=&dlcount=&daysback=&swlink=&gfiletype=&os=128&li=&dlsize=&ca= These are games for smaller kids under…
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Chaintech VNF3-250 Doesn’t POST and beeps once…
I guess I asked for it, upgraded from a 75GB drive to a 750GB (!!) drive and things were working fine until I actually put the drive into the computer and now nothing happens. I get one beep and then the system just hangs! “OC Forum”:http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=266936 has a very useful what to do on a…
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US University Endowments
“Wikipedia”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_colleges_and_universities_by_endowment actually has a list. These are for the fiscal year end 2005, but so pretty recent figures. | Rank | Institution | Endowment | | 1 | Harvard University | $25.474B | | 2 | Yale University | $15.225B | | 3 | Stanford University | $12.205B | | 4 | University of Texas…
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iGo Auto/air85
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Intel Core 2 Duo Desktops Arrive
Intel’s Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors were announced two weeks ago with much fanfare from the hardware editors and the enthusiast community. Intel had brought a great-performing chip to the market that was faster than every processor currently available and was much cooler than its Pentium-D predecessor. Today, there were a slew…
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MVP Baseball 2005 is no more
We downloaded the MVP 2004 demo and Calvin just loves it, unfortunately, because EA lost the rights to MLB, they now only have NCAA Baseball and it is only on consoles, so nothing for our beloved PC. You can still get used MVP 2005 on ebay though. And you pretty much have to have a…
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Yoku Moku
!>http://www.yokumoku.com/images/SMMAIN2.JPG! I picked these butter cookies up on the way through Narita, I have to say they are just awesome. You can buy them in America at Neiman Marcus or Saks, but they are from Japan and get gret “reviews”:http://www.superfuture.com/city/reviews/review.cfm?ID=159 there. bq. !>http://www.yokumoku.co.jp/company/img/com_yoku_img01.jpg! Yoku Moku Yoku Moku produces some of the finest all natural butter…
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Microsoft Zune to compete with iPod
!>http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/2137_zune.jpg! Well, I’m glad that J and Robbie are on this, nice to know there will be some competition. The 30GB Zune player direct from Microsoft will have Wifi so you can download without needing a PC. Will be about $400 according to rumors, so it will be pricey. They even have a “blog”:http://www.zuneinsider.com/ for…
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Intel Core 2 Duo Desktops Arrive
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Shanghai Restaurants
John and went to “Ai Wan Ting”:http://www.aiwanting.com.cn/ ?????????at the “Superbrand Mall”:http://www.entershanghai.info/country/Ci_22_set.htm (????, Zheng Da Chang Cheng) and had a great meal. Great views and really fresh fish and lobster too. Duane also took use to “South Beauty 881 Club”:http://www.qiaojiangnan.com/ (???, Qiao Jiang Nan) in Puxi (we’ve also been to the branch in Pudong) As “Eurobiz”:http://www.sinomedia.net/eurobiz/v200407/risk0407-02.html…
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Bluetooth Headsets: Plantronics 640 and Motorola H5
Well, I seem to have misplaced my Plantronics 640 headset again, so not a bad time to look at the headset market once more. Here’s the recommendations: * “Plantronics 640”:http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=12867242/zip_code=98004/. These have come down a lot in price to $65 at newegg. Nice form factor. It is nine grams and loud enough. Main problem I…
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Sonicare Toothbrushes
!>http://www.sonicare.com/images/products/Dsum_hero_LORES.jpg! Connie got these Sonicare toothbrushes for Calvin, but I have to say that I really love them. The only confusing thing is the names of the various versions, so here’s a decoder ring and where to buy them: * Elite (a.k.a Best). They have two models, the Elite 9500 which has two speeds and…
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Nordstrom Anniversary Sale
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Sony System Recovery
There are two ways to get your Sony back, first you can create a DVD for yourself. They also ship with an invisible partition with the complete information, but it isn’t very obvious how to do it. “Sony eSupport”:http://www.iq.sony.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,Kb=CISCV3,Company={46BFA530-E01F-4F7C-B98B-69C2AA06051B},Case=Obj(395689),TS=Externalv4,T=response_case.tem,VARSET_OBJ=395689,VARSET_TOP=TRUE,question=ref(QC):ord(1),question=ref(QB):ord(1) has this and more generally in the “Sony VGN-TX650P”:http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-faq.pl?mdl=VGNTX650P# support FAQ # Choose Start/All Programs/VAIO/VAIO Recovery…
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Unlock EDGE-enable Sony VAIO VGN-TX650P
!>http://img.engadget.com/common/images/3060000000050175.JPG?0.5964158879566592! “Engadget”:http://www.engadget.com/2005/10/20/how-to-unlock-your-edge-enabled-sony-vaio-vgn-t350/ and “Sony eSupport”:http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-faq.pl?mdl=VGNTX650P#. Well, in the campaign to get things unlocked and ready when I’m off overseas, here are the instructions for how to unlock a Sony VAIO with a builtin EDGE/GPRS modem. You don’t need this in the US since Cingular has a $80/month all-you-can-eat data plan. Here are the complete Instructions:…
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Window Fans and Swamp Coolers
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Personal Weather Stations
Pretty cool, “Wunderground”:http://www.wunderground.com/stationmaps/gmap.asp?zip=98004&wmo=99999 has personal weather stations on google maps soyou can see the temperature around your area. Check it out. And yes, for Seattle having 80 degree weather at 10:30PM *is* a hot day! By comparison, “Shanghai”:http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/58362.html looks positively nice at 77F and overcast but it is humid and “Beijing”:http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/54511.html is going to be…
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Any Video or Audio Format Conversion
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Monopoly Rules
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Ideal Wine Cellar Temperature and Humidity
Bascially, the average home is 20 degrees C, but this is too hot for wine, the ideal is 10-13 C or 50-55 degree Fahrenheit. YOu can have it as high as 15C for emdium term storage but not above 18C. Main thing is to prevent temperatur fluctuation as noted by “thewinedoctor.com”:http://www.thewinedoctor.com/advisory/buystoreidealcellar.shtml with “intowine”:http://www.intowine.com/cellar.html#basic saying much…
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Blackberry doesn’t Enterprise Activate and Free Blackberry Games and Apps
Dumb me, I have a new 8700 and couldn’t get it to enterprise activate, the whole activation process would hang with “Activation Server not found.” So what’s the problem, I have been gettings lots of NTP messages and put a spam filter on it, the way that activation works though is that email messages are…
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Sprinkler System Startup and Shutdown
“Yardcare.com”:http://www.yardcare.com/expertadvice/maintenance/watering/springstartup.html has some good advice about how to startup your sprinkler system. These are specific instructions, but it does mean I need to figure out where all the various valves are to turn the thing on. Fortunately, it never really freezes here, so turning it on is pretty easy if you know where the valves…
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China Mobile WAP, MMS, SMTP/POP and GPRS Settings
OK, here are the detailed configuration you’ll need for a phone you want to make work with a China Mobile SIM thanks to “kuldaen”:http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/index.php?name=MDForum&file=viewtopic&p=449343 For WAP, the official site is on “Monternet.com”:http://www.monternet.com/moneditor/cs/wap/wapguide/ WAP home: http://wap.monternet.com Gateway IP: 10.0.0.172 Port: 9201 GPRS APN: cmwap Username and Password don’t matter BTW with Sony Ericsson phones, they have…
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Engadget Mobile
Engadget realy does have a good set of mobile tidbit from around the world including some interesting trends: h2. Innovations The big ones appear to be making things slimmer and slimmer and also having a real music phone plus an onslaught of Windows Mobile devices: !http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2006/06/canary14.jpg! “Motorola Canary”:http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/06/14/motorola-canary-razr-2-hands-on/, this is the RAZR follow-on codenamed the…
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HTC Star Trek is the RAZR Killer
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