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It's Winter Time: What About Chains?
tirechain.com. So the chains I get from Fred Meyer never seem like they’ll work that well. With Connie’s new car and us going in the snow, time to consult the Internet. Of course, there is an expert at tirechain.com to help you out. Never imagined so many different products could get reviewed. The long and…
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Dura Ace 10 for only $1600!
Motobecane for just $1700 with Dura-Ace 10. Hat tip to Joe, check out these new Motobecane “bikes”:http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/lechampteam04pre_pub.htm that are going for $1700. They normally cost $2700. Man, I wish I needed a bike. BTW, this is less than the kit cost of a Dura Ace 10 setup at Excelsports.com
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Lord of the Rings Trilogy at the Cinerama
Seattle Cinerama. There is a god. The Cinerama will have the Lord of the Rings extended editions showing December 5-10 for the first one, then the second December 12-15. Then, it is too bad that it is sold out, they will do all three versions of the Lord of the Rings on the 16th when…
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Ice Age Backup Issues
DVDRHelp.com Forum Archive – Ice Age Collectors edition – problem – disk 1. I’ve had trouble backing up Ice Age. Here are some recommendations on what to do if DVDDecryptor fails. There is “AnyDVD”:http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.html, which is a driver that makes the DVD appear to be unencrypted. Pretty smart really. Then you can use other programs…
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DVD Shrink: Backup DVDs to DVD?R
“DVD Help – DVD Shrink”:http://www.dvdrhelp.com/tools?tool=155#comments and DVD?R Digest – Articles – DVD Shrink Guide and “Afonic DVD Shrink Guide”:http://www.polarhome.com/~afonic/shrink.htm.DVD Shrink is the a free software that allows you to “shrink” existing DVD movies (by removing content or reducing their quality) so that they will all fit onto a single 4.7 GB DVD recordable. DVD Shrink…
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Christmas Recommendations: PC Games
Well, I seem to be doing a series of gift reviews. Here’s the latest. Since I used to work at Microsoft, I can still buy software through the Company Store thanks to the “Microsoft Alumni Network”:http://msanet.org. So, here are the best of the Microsoft PC games: * “Top 100 Games”:http://www.gamespot.com/misc/top100_score.html. Interesting to see what Gamespot…
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Academic Office
What’s in the Office 2003 Editions?. Ludwig told me that the new Office Academice Editions (actually called Student and Teacher Edition) allow three machines to use the same version. Cost is $149 list and you can get for $139. The new “licensing”:http://www.microsoft.com/office/editions/prodinfo/students/overview.mspx is certainly pretty generous. Boy, do they have lots of versions of Office…
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Performance Ski Rentals
I’ve been renting skis for the last five years. I know, I know, should have bought some, but was never clear the kids would like it. Now, I’d like to try some fancy skis, but need them for a while. Here are some optiosn: * www.wood-ski.com Rentals Woodinville Ski Rentals – www.wood-ski.com. $200 for performance…
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Scanners: Christmas Update
Well, time now to figure out the best film scanner for this Christmas. Might actually buy one now that I’m generating lots of 35mm and want to scan in all those old photos too. The day is definitely getting close when real quality adherents like “Steve Hoffmann”:http://sphoto.com/techinfo/dslrvsfilm.htm can compare a $1,500 Canon 10D with a…
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Christmas Kitchenware Recommendations 2004
MetroKitchen.com. Another good things for the Christmas lists. Here’s someone in Atlanta that has a great selection of super high quality cookware. My personal favorites (that I thought I blogged, but can’t find now): * “All-Clad Cookware”:http://www.metrokitchen.com/all-clad/. Top rated in many places. The most durable is the brushed aluminum of Master Chef 2 , but…
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Ski Shopping
With all this great snow, I’ve been looking for skis. Missed most of the sales, so I’m off trolling the web. Here are some interesting sites for the Volkl 724 Pro and Rossignol Bandit B2 I’ve been looking at: * 724 Pro Skis by Volkl. Says they have these on sale, but you have to…
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Blackberry 7230: Off to Germany…
I’ve been recommending the Blackberry 7230 to a host of folks. Here’s the latest and some FAQs: _Hello Rich, Finally I see someone who has a Blackberry 7230. I have been seriously considering one. I live in Upstate NY but I travel every year to Germany for a month. While there I would like to…
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80GB isn't enough
a little ludwig goes a long way: Installing XIII right now…. You’re right that 80GB no longer is big enough. I’m maxed out right now just with video files on a 120GB machine and my home server has 2x120GB and I’m creaking at not enough space. I just deleted all my games I don’t use…
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Compliments from Ludwig
a little ludwig goes a long way: Tong is on fire.. Hey John, just trying to emulate you buddy!
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2 Years Later: The USE Alien Seatpost
Alien Clamp Fitting Instructions. Well its been two years since I installed this. The reviews are right. It is super light (just 140 grams), but incredibly hard to adjust. When I sit my fat butt on the seat, it literally locks into place. When I disassemble pieces go flying. The most depressing thing is that…
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Campagnolo Record Bottom Bracket: Use Phil Wood instead
_Hat tip to the folks at roadbikerider.com for this one_ Uncle Al’s Rant: Campy Record Bottom Bracket Dear Uncle Al: Uh oh! I’ve read how much you don’t like the Campy Record bottom bracket. I have 5,000 miles on my 2003 Record Carbon crankset so would be interested to know specifically what’s wrong with it.…
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Nero Plug-ins
NeroPlugins.cd-rw.org. Wow an incredible list of plug-ins for Nero that support an amazing number of codecs. Everything for AAC converts to Mpeg4 to using Ogg Vorbis with Nero.
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Ogg Vorbis instead of MPEG 3
Doom9.net – Ogg Vorbis Guide. One thing that is pretty neat is if you use Ogg Vorbis, a much more efficient encoding, rather than MP3 for Xvid movies. Here’s the guide from Doom9. So, the state of the “art” open source movie uses the open source xvid codec and then the ogg vorbis encoder/decoder. I…
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DVD to DVD Conversion
Doom9.net – The Definitive DVD Backup Resource. OK, a new guide that tells you how to backup a DVD to a DVD recordable. Good stuff. complicated as usual, but great for geeks.
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Ripping DVD Soundtrack to MP3
Audio-Only DVD Ripping Guide – How to Convert DVD Video to MP3 or Audio CD Format. A very useful guide that explains how to take the AC3 soundtrack and get it into MP3 format. This is tricky because AC3 is at 48kHz whereas CDs are at 44.1kHz and are in different formats. The key programs…
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What is Hyperthreading?
Ars Technica: Introduction to Multithreading, Superthreading and Hyperthreading and “Tom’s Hardware”:http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20021227/. _Well, the Intel site was confusing on the topic of what is this hyperthreading thing, so a quick google search found an article that someone with a 30 year old computer science degree like me can understand_ The basic idea is that today’s modern…
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First Shuttle SN85g4's coming
I’ve been looking for this so sweet barebones system and the first ones are coming up for sale. Here are some folks who are starting to carry. They are not yet at the big guys like newegg.com: * Directron. Never heard of these guys, but doing preorders for $349. * “Top Micro”:http://store.topmic.com/shuttlesn85g4.html. They have them…
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More on the Shuttle ST61G and SB75G2
X-bit labs – Hardware news – New Shuttle XPCs ST61G and SB75G2 – Targeting Gamers and Enterprises?. _Another hat tip to Xbitlabs_ The XPC ST61G barebone ? first SFF PC powered by the RADEON 9100 IGP core-logic with integrated graphic core supporting DirectX 8.1 capabilities unveiled this Summer ? is probably targeted for gamers and…
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Shuttle to ship 600K systems in 2004
X-bit labs – Hardware news – Shuttle Projects Further Growth of XPC Shipments in 2004. _Amazing how big a business these XPCs are getting to be_ Shuttle said in an interview to DigiTimes web-site that its XPC shipments this year will be between 550 and 600 thousands of units, 50 to 100 thousands more than…
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CPU Utilities
CPUID. This is a great utility set for tweaking your PC and knowing how it is performing. For instance PC Wizard tells you what machine you actually have and how it is performing. Like Sisoft Sandra, but just for the CPU. There is also CPU-Z which tells you exactly what processor you have running. Great…
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Another Game…
Another potential game are to have a name on your back and then you have to go find the other person who matches. Kind of a mixer and there is a prize you get if you find your opposite: * Famous Couples. An entire web site. * “Famous Movie Couples”:http://www.imdb.com/Couples/. All the folks who are…
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Xvid Settings (Con't)
Sectie B & D: Hoe MP3, DivX maken. Well, I tried some new Xvid settings and now the second pass won’t work. Here are some more recommendations. I’ll give these a try. This is true since Xvid defaults are single pass, so you have to understand something about what to set. This is also probably…
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Famous People and What They Drink…
We’re having a Holiday Party and I like to invent fun games. Here’s one, match the famous person with what they drink. So, you have folks who have the name of a famous person and match it to what their favorite libation is. Here are some websites to pick from: * Absintheusa.com. Absinthe was drunk…
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Consumer VOIP
VoIP NEWS ONLINE. Been looking at VOIP for consumers. Here’s an entrie site dedicated to it. Note that Vonage just raised an additional $35M from NEA to bring their total to $60M plus. Have about 70K subscribers, but seem to be a early leaders. Also have Skype who are doing the classic, its just free…
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Codec Comparisons
Doom9.net – The Definitive DVD Backup Resource – Codec Comparison May 2003. The latest motion Codec comparison that I could find. Pretty interesting results. Basically says that DivX 5.05 is fast and has OK quality while Xvid is slower with better quality. I ran Xvid against Raiders of the Lost Ark and in two passes,…