Tong Family (richtong.org sync)

Latest on headlamps. A fast changing category, this review is great because they do their own realistic battery tests: Selling at an amazingly low street price of $36, the Coast HL7 blew us away with a combination of huge 128 meter beam distance, relatively light 4.4 ounce weight, and best-in-class floodlight optics.…

Need a few more things to fill up a cart on Overstock (and get a 10% coupon too). So what to get. Movies seems easy, so which Blu-ray’s don’t I have. Although we do lots of netflix etc, the actual Mbps on a Blu-ray still can’t be beat, so here…

Man life has gotten a lot more complex than just being a student waiting in the TKTS line. Here are some notes if you are headed that way: Matilda The award winning show is on right now. The big question is where to buy tickets. There are a zillion sales…

Ok, who can stand it when Ludwig checks in on github at 30K feet. Well, I’ve got you beat. Satellite wifi on the way to Shanghai, here’s a post about the most amazing (yes sentimental to a fault) movie, About Time. There are fewer more romantic examples of wonderful british…

Well once you get into it, it is hard not to go whole hog. Here are the latest schemes to get more points. It’s earned us a whopping $300 or far just from Xmas shopping rebates, so here is what is in progress.: Bluebird. This is an Amex debit card…

What a pain this actually is. Here are the steps assuming you have Photoshop: Take your photo against a white background (a wall for instance). If you can turn on the grid feature of your camera, so that you take a “square” picture. On a 3:2 system that means you…

Just got one to try for our long trip. Was starting to use it and suddenly the screen went blank. When you try to change things like RAW to JPEG, it would refuse to do it. And when you try to initialize it would fail. Argh! I’ve never had camera…

Oh my goodness, this is the most obscure product on planet earth! It is crazy how hard it is to get work. I have had it working for a few seconds and then it seems to die. Been on the line for hours with Sony Tech Support and their basic…

Yuck, we have no less than four different remote systems for the various flat panels around the house. And now the venerable Crestron is giving us fits. Josh recommended we try iRule. At last something that makes some sense. It is programmable (like the old Philips Pronto) and it is…

Well there always seem to be new ways, but reading http://millionmilesecrets.com/2013/01/03/airline-miles-expiration/ here are some easy ones and that site has the right links: United Buy something through the United portal. Can be a $1 iTunes gift card. Use Bcksgr which gives you miles if you like companies on Facebook (free!)…