Jeffs Reviews

Who Pays?

2010-04-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

If your car has automatic parallel parking and it backs into another vehicle while automatically parking, Who Pays the Damages and Ticket?

Adobe CS5 is here, well almost

2010-04-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

Adobe Creative Suite 5 is almost here, Adobe is hyping its main features and new components as I write this. At Adobe they are constantly working to improve things but these are totally awesome, background fill in so you can remove things and the program fills in the background for you so you can move or remove foreground objects.

A guy just selected a horse in a pasture, added background automatically and then moved/removed the horse with the trees and fence filled in behind the horse by the program with no cloning by the operator. Totally awesome tool called Content Aware Fill In.

More later as the launch of Adobe CS5 continues.

iPad, All The Hype

2010-04-04T05:56:00.000-07:00

I have been following all the hype and hoopla about the release of the Apple iPad and snickering in my own private way.

While as a techy I have envied those that did receive one and would really protect and cherish it if I did get one for reviewing you gotta love the guys that did get one and tossed it around. PCWorld went so far as to stress test one and uploaded the video to their site which you can see here: Apple iPad Stress Test.

I think those that are buying it only because its the next best Apple or just expensive product need to have their head examined by a professional but it does have its uses. But a product that can go so bad so quickly on more than one occasion does make one think that it may not be the great thing Apple is pushing.

David Letterman couldn't get his to work right live on his show and even a few drops onto carpeting is enough to start the RMA process for repairs. I won't even get into washing the coffee off the iPad or the baseball, Apple aficionados may not want to watch the video.

Sony takes back feature they sold as part of PS3

2010-03-29T09:04:00.000-07:00

Sony once sold the console system PlayStation 3 as "It Only Does Everything"

Now it seems they are taking back this little promise by removing the Install Other OS feature with the next update coming in April 2010.

Sony should be wary of doing things like removing features that people use as this is a direct violation of features they marketed their product for when they sold it. It's a class action lawsuit waiting to happen in my opinion.

Why would you remove a feature from a product when it was part of the marketing and sales campaign when you first started selling it.

Cut off the nose to spite the face comes to mind.

Starting up again & IPodMeister.com

2010-03-18T14:46:00.000-07:00

I thought I would start up my Blog again and see if there is anyone listening.

I just received an interesting email and wanted to share it, this is an advertising type release from ipodmeister.com.

All you do is send them a few hundred CD's or DVD's and they will send you an iPad. Sounds simple right? They are making a fortune at this I am sure.

It' all in the math, 220 unscratched CD's or DVD's will get you an iPod Nano 8GB with AM/FM radio. You send them 220 store bought CD's or DVD's with jewel case or DVD case and they will send you an iPod.

Now lets do the math and see if you really want to do this or head directly to your local music store to cash in there.

220 used CD's at lets say $1 a piece will net you $220 for a trade in. I have traded CD's for more than this and several DVD's for much more, $3 to $5 for current ones. But for simplicity we'll stick with a nice round figure of a plain dollar.

A new iPod Nano 8GB costs about $125-$130 from the many places you can purchase them and we will be generous with the top figure of $130.

Add a few dollars for shipping and handling, say $15 and the site that offers this great deal is making about $75 or more.

$220 trade in value-$130 cost of iPod Nano+$15 S& H = Profit of $75

Any more they can sell their CD's or DVD's wherever they are selling them at makes them even more money. I have seen a local buyer of DVD's and CD's easily pay me cash in hand $3 to $5 a piece for discs as long as they are in good shape. At $2 a piece for someone to buy my good CD's would net this website $295, not bad for having a store somewhere selling used CDs and DVD's with a few minutes of handling and shipping in between.

I recommend you go to your local used music store and cash in those CD's & DVD's without the hassle ans fuss of shipping. I have heard of several reputable stores that easily pay cash or simple checks for even slightly scratched CD's and DVD's.

Everything you are told is not always the good deal it sounds like so think hard before jumping into so called deals.

Moving IN

2009-08-21T20:39:00.000-07:00

We are almost done moving in, but not quite there.

We are almost out of our old home and have to clean it this weekend as well as move the last of our outdoor stuff, potted plants and things like that. Cleaning won't take long but we also have to move our stuff out of a storage unit. We were storing things in anticipation of moving and also have to move that in, not much room for it though upstairs.

Our garage is great, but needs work, and will fit most of the outdoor stuff and bikes as well as our collection of junk that we have collected over the years. My wife is really into crafts and has her own craft room and will have her stuff in the basement when we get to unloading the storage unit which has a good amount of her things in it.

We also have a couple of bench seats from our vans and other stuff that will also fit in the garage which is big. There is room for two vehicles as well as all our stuff once we get things organized. We will have to do some extensive work on the garage and have already started on the house with rewiring and fixing all those small things.

We will move the washer and dryer from the kitchen to the upstairs room that my wife is using for her crafts that was an upstairs apartment kitchen. It is perfect for her craft room as it has a sink and the power for her stuff that a kitchen would need for appliances. I am also going to be doing some work on the roof with adding vents and repairing siding but nothing real exciting.

I am really tired and have much more work to do. I'll write back soon.

Our New Home

2009-08-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

We closed, now its time to move. We spent yesterday worrying and waiting for 2 and went to closing, it was quick.

After signing about 50 times we then left and picked up our son and started moving, cleaning and packing. We have spent the day moving and cleaning and will start on the big move, lots of boxes and furniture. My office will wait till Thursday as our phone and internet will not be in till Friday so that will probably be the last stuff, maybe.

Well, we have more stuff to move and pack away.

Happy day...

We are finally closing

2009-08-13T15:34:00.000-07:00

We finally have our closing date for Friday. All the paperwork is in and we would have closed today but the title company doing our closing only has tommorow available. Yeah, we can finally pack up our house and move the whole four blocks.

It's going to be a busy weekend.

Continuing to wait

2009-08-07T07:51:00.000-07:00

We are still waiting on some paperwork, apparently the seller cannot find the power of attorney or some such.

While this would be no big deal we are a bit mad as Michele had taken a week off of work, vacation, that has mostly gone to waste. Two of the days we sat around and did a little packing and cleaning here but Michele did get to go back to work for a few days. The problem is that when we do close she will not be able to take vacation as she works at a daycare and scheduling days off is a bit tricky. She is in charge of her room and to take days off they need to find a replacement which can sometimes be difficult for the admin so she will probably not get to take as many days off as we would have liked.

This kind of makes moving in more difficult but it also is taking away from a lot of the fun as we wanted to do this together and now it's going to mostly be me and the kids moving stuff with her pitching in after work.

I really wish the seller/realtor had not told us we had a closing date when they were not completely ready, that way we would not have wasted vacation time.

This is just one word of warning to potential buyers out there looking at buying a home, make sure there is clear communication and let the sellers agent know you want a definite closing date and that they have all their ducks in a row before taking days off from work.

Woops, a few days delay.

2009-08-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

Our closing is being delayed a couple of days while some paperwork goes across the state for a couple of signatures. We should be closing Wednesday or Thursday.

Until then its wait.

Closing Day and other nonsense

2009-08-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

Today we close, well tomorrow but that is only a few hours away. We will have a late closing as there are still a couple of things that need to get figured by the powers that be and those lower ones like appraisers. After all that gets figured out we will go to close and the house will finally be ours. I will post a bunch of decent pictures on my website as soon as we get some tomorrow.

I saw this on PC World and it is so appropriate:

Law 1: Fix a computer for a friend or family member, and you'll be tech support for life. --Danny Allen, PC World

I just love these Tech SUpport rules.

There's a bunch more but this one I find especially true.

Have a great week, mine will be the busiest of my life.

Two days and counting, plus or minus

2009-08-01T15:28:00.000-07:00

We are just two days from closing, as long as all the last minute things get done. They are right now finishing the roof after having rushed to the last minute to start. We are not sure why the seller waited till this weekend to tell the roofer to go ahead but they did and we will see if we have a sound roof over our heads when we sign the papers.

We are not sure if the renter that was renting the upstairs is out as we did see him there today and he was supposed to be out by today but as long as he is not there on Monday that's fine with us. We do have locks and they will be changed right after closing. We will start doing things right away starting with locks and checking things out.

We'll make a list of things we want to get done right away but the first will be the electric and taking off the upstairs meter. The house used to be a duplex but we are not going to keep it that way. Actually the only thing making it a duplex is the two meters and a couple of locked doors.

The doors are simply going to be left open and the meter will go depending on cost. If an electrician can just remove that meter and connect the upstairs to the existing main service panel that would be great. I am hoping he or she can install a main service disconnect and I can work from there with the rest.

We'll see how things go after this weekend with what we have and what we can do but we have to first close on the house.

It is going to be a rough two days, closing will be about 4PM and it will be rough going through a full day just waiting around and packing some.

Appraisal is Done

2009-07-25T17:36:00.001-07:00

Our appraisal is done and we are good for our closing one week away.

We got our appraisal and it looks like we are ready to go with the closing except for a few minor details. One thing we are waiting for is a survey that was being mailed from the current owner so we can see where the garage sits on the property. If it is over the property line we will have to do some more paperwork but the seller also owns the house next door that the garage would be on so we have no problems with getting ahold of them.

We also have to get two things done with them, one is an agreement for the repair if needed in the future for the common sewer Drop Box that our home and the next door home uses for the main sewer line. Both homes sewer lines go out to the center of the yard between the homes and into a brick and concrete box then to the street. In the future if any work needs to be done on the box or main line to the street we will split the cost and we just need some paperwork spelling this out.

They have also rented out part of the garage with the house next door and we need to come to some agreement as to how they are going to handle this as we would like to use all of the garage or get some kind of payment if the neighbor is still going to use the garage but that's just small stuff.

One week and cunting, now for a few sleepless nights worrying and waiting.

We are closing

2009-07-18T09:38:00.001-07:00

So far everything is going great on our home purchase. We had the appraisal and the roof will be done in a few days. The rest is all done like the underwriting and everything for the loan and insurance. We just need to contact the insurance when we do have a final close date and everything else will be done for the closing on our part.

We are evry excited and anxious to start moving in, I really cannot understand how people who wait months to close can stand it.

Negotiations Complete

2009-07-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

We just found out that the seller will do some needed repairs, reshingle roof, add vents and flashing, and we will purchase the home with other damages being our worry. As long as everything goes well with the reshingling we should be moving in sometime in the near future.

Yeah, jumping up and down, rejoicing, you get the idea.

Mortgage Details Complete, On to Inspection

2009-06-25T14:01:00.000-07:00

We met with our banker, very nice guy at Wells Fargo, and have settled the mortgage stuff. 20% down 30 year loan, No PMI, No tax and insurance ecsrow. Low monthly payments and we deal with monthly or whatever for insurance and taxes since we will be putting down the 20 perent.

If you can scrape, beg, borrow or whatever the money I highly recommend getting 20 percent of the home cost for a down payment. It leaves yourself in control with more options in handling your money as the monthly payments will be so much less.

Now we go to inspection which is Monday, yeah, whoop, and jumping.

We will get to see first hand everything that we can about why we should not buy the home versus what we will have to fix sometime in the future. That is really how I see the home inspection unless there is soemthing major like main damage to the roof that is only visible from the attic. Other than this kind of stuff we are sold on the home and just have to wait till the closing with a few more appointments and such.

We will also be going to the insurance agent to get the insurance up and ready but not till after the inspection, one step at a time.

Home Purchase and the process

2009-06-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

We offered on a two story 2,000 sq foot home not far from our current rental. They accepted verbally and when the sellers realtor received a written confirmation we are going forward with the purchase.

We must get with our banker and update our loan information with current payroll information and make sure all the mortgage details are settled on. We scraped enough money together for a 20 percent down payment which means no PMI, Private Mortgage Insurance, so payments will be less.

We also need to get the home inspection taken care of which will happen on Monday, fun times. We will have to pay this out of our pocket as is usual for home inspections. A home inspection is important so you know any problems small and large that you should know about and have taken care of eventually. A home inspector will be experienced in looking at things that you may not know of or think to. Either the seller or buyers agent will arrange to open the door for the inspector and I plan to be there to watch, check out any problems as he finds them and do some measuring.

We also need to get to our insurance agent and start home owners insurance, but with the 20 pecent down payment we may be able to deal with this on our own instead of having to deposit monthly payments into an escrow account. We will find out from our banker if we are required to deposit monthly into an acocunt to pay the insurance and taxes or if we can deal with this on our own and pay the insurance and taxes ourselves.

These are the first steps when a home offer is accepted: loan and mortgage with banker, insurance and home inspection.

After this it will be up to the banker to arrange the appraisal and other things.

Another Offer (and this one looks promising)

2009-06-22T18:20:00.000-07:00

We offered on another home, yeah. Better yet, they accepted.

The house is an old one, older than me and my wife put together. But it has character and hardwood floors with enough rooms upstairs to have our bedrooms and an extra room as a craft utility room.

The main floor has a living room, dining room and large kitchen with a bathroom on each floor plus another room for my office. Basement does need some TLC but we don't figure on using it other than to store plastic tubs, monsters and the boiler. The garage could fit about a half dozen cars, it looks like it may actually encrouch on the two properties. We may be doing some demolition work to get the garage down to a usable and decent size instead of a shop, garage, rumpus room and storage for squirrel nuts for a couple dozen critters.

Now its on to appraissal, inspection and paperwork until the current tenant in the upstairs apartment is moved out.

Now I'm Pissed at MS and Bing

2009-06-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

Bing again hijacks users of Firefox by adding .NET framework to hijack the address bar of mozilla users.

This is ridiculous and a sure sign that Microsoft has not thought through their use of a search engine as a simple device to enhance peoples internet use. They view it as a way to garner more users and frustrate users of other browsers as well.

If you use Mozilla and type in something into the adress bar, not the serach bar, and it doesn't take you to an address but takes you to the Bing search page go here for the patch to correct it:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/963707

Microsoft is really dropping the ball with Bing.

Bing goes to far

2009-06-03T08:21:00.000-07:00

,and I still don't see what the fuss is about.

I was playing around with Bing and it changed my search engine when I opened it which I thought was something I did. But apparently I am not the only one who is saying this as well. Here's an article on PCWorld about the same thing.

I usually use good old Google and wanted to check out Bing, which was not my default search engine. When I started using Bing it automatically changed my default search engine to Bing on its own and did not even ask me about it.

I do not like programs that change main default settings on me without asking, this is bad for Microsoft if this happen by default to a lot of people as many will not like it at all. People want the choice and will go out of their way to use something else if the company tries to force a program on them.

Whats the big deal about Bing?

2009-06-02T14:16:00.000-07:00

Well Bing works, at least mostly.

I tried it out and am not all that impressed as well as being confused. I inserted "jeffsreviews" to see what it would come up with and the first entry doesn't even have the words "jeffsreviews" on the page.

Kind of fishy but my son said it is still needing some work and that brings up my first point about coming out with new high tech software. It should work right off the bat when released after all the hype or the company should be ashamed. Of course more complex things like operating systems are going to have bugs but something like a search engine should at the very least find the words or characters you're looking for.

The cached page did not even list anything on the page that it found so why did it list this page for the first search found. I don't think this is a good way to start off a release and am not all that impressed with the newest Microsoft product even if it is free.

I think I'll stick with good old Google.

Programs that Work

2009-05-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

I have been using LargeSoftware Password manager since I received it for reviewing and it is still working extremely well. It has kept my 40 to 50 passwords for accounts, website log ons and forums without any problems that did not automatically recover. A few times when the program has a fault and shuts down I just restart it and it works like a champ.

This is one program that I highly recommend as a long term password manager that continues to do exactly what it is supposed to. Another program that I recently found is by Stardock called Fences that organizes your desktop icons for Windows.

Fences places labeled or unlabeled boxes on your desktop to contain your icons. You can create as many boxes as you want, resize the boxes, change the background and turn it partially or fully transparent as well as expect it to work all the time. I have had my explorer shut down and had to restart it without Fences having to restart or not work correctly. Fences recovers and works right off the bat everytime I have had problems with my computer without a hitch.

LargeSoftware and Stardock have really done a great job with Password Manager and Fences, check them out at the websites for their developers.

Seller Appraisal

2009-05-19T18:53:00.000-07:00

Our agent forwarded an email from the sellers agent saying the credit union that is selling the home is getting an appraisal on the house. This sounds pretty good to me as it will let us kow if we will be doing well on our own appraisal or maybe we can even use this one, not sure how this all works but we will be getting word soon.

With this being a bank owned sale it will take a bit longer as it has to go to the bank and then to another person in the bank or even a board for a decision and not just a person or couple like a owner sale.

Whatever, it will be fine as I am sure we will get an answer soon enough and things will get moving again.

We better get something soon or the wife is going to go nuts.

No Word, Good or Bad?

2009-05-12T18:20:00.000-07:00

We have had no word from our agent about the home offer being accepted but he has kept us on top of things. I have to say getting a good agent makes the home buying process much easier when things get difficult or nerve racking.

Our agent has let us know even when nothing is happening so we know he is there and staying on top of things with the other agent. He has talked with the sellers agent and found out just about all he can and let us know where we stand and his opinion on our chances so we are grateful we did go with a great agent who really does a fantastic job.

No words can express how important it is to do research and find an agent you can trust and who you are willing to work with. It is also very important to talk to your agent to let them know as much about you and your home search so they can do their job to the best of their ability.

Different house, same story

2009-05-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

Well, our offer on the home in South Moorhead didn't pan out, seller could not scrap together enough funds for us to buy home at what we wanted to pay.

So we went back to looking and found another home that we made an offer on and are waiting to hear if we got accepted. This house looks really good with plenty of room for us and at a reasonable price. Now if we can just get it we can be off to a move.

Major SNAFU

2009-04-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

We hit a major SNAFU or roadblock in our house purchase, the seller has to get some more funds to pay off their debt on the home before we can purchase. So we wait some more and continue looking while they try to get their ducks in a row.

We will continue looking for other homes and see if this or another comes along but we are not going to hold our breathe on this one, oh well.

Anybody out there got a three bedroom home in the Moorhead area they are wanting to get rid of cheap, under $90k?

2009-04-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

Things are rolling now, appointments with the loan officer and starting to get ready to move.

By the way here's the house, it may look odd from the front but it looks great inside, even has a fireplace. I will post pics of the interior when I get a chance to tour the home, probably while the inspector is doing his thing this week.

It used to be elsewhere in town and was moved then install by a voag class or some such, we'll find out more later. Hope those guys knew what they were doing, the inspectors will show me if they did though. I can't wait to actually be able to put stuff in our new home and get it packed full of our junk.

Our New Home, Almost

2009-04-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

We offered on a home today and after a little counter and counter offering we got our offer accepted.

Now we move on to the fun stuff of trying to close ASAP, the seller wants to close as soon as we can so its off to the bank next and finagle a loan. Then to a home inspection, very necessary, and to our closing. Should be happening next week and then its tme to move as long as everything goes well.

Hurray...

Zer01 The way Cell Phones are Going, I Hope!

2009-04-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

I saw a press release from Zer01, a new cell phone company that is very interesting.

They are offering a cell phone plan that is upfront payment with no contracts and no limits. Seems that people are finally getting something they want without all the hassles of contracts tying them down for years. They will be starting in June with some Beta testing first and looks like they will be able to convert your own phone to their plan.

Way to go, check them out here: Zer01 Mobile

Cyberdyne & Robots

2009-04-16T05:38:00.000-07:00

I came across a newsletter from DVICE about a real company in Japan that is making robotic suites for people to wear that will help them in rehab after injuries called an exoskeleton. The suit looks a lot like those scifi things in movies, wait wasn't there some movie about a company called Cyberdyne, big film with robots that took over the world.

Nah, couldn't be the same company. By the way the companies name is not the only movie reference, HAL is the name of the suit, Hybrid Assistive Limb. The suit looks really cool and could really help a lot of people.

Flooding and Volunteering

2009-04-05T18:20:00.000-07:00

We have passed the first round of flood emergencies and are waiting for the next crest of the Red River anytime now.

The cities got a lot of volunteers and my family also helped out some. My kids went one day and helped while I stayed home and worked and then the rest went the next day while I stayed home and unclogged my bathroom sink drain, fun stuff. I wanted to get that done before the neighbor used their sink, we have a duplex with joint drains for the bathrooms and I wanted to get that unclogged so we both could use our bathroom sinks. Good thing I stayed home with our van, they got done sandbagging and missed the bus, no telling when the next one would have gone by so I picked them up.

Then we spent the next week volunteering with the next door dog obedience school as they took in pets, cats and dogs, for two weeks or so. We went over every couple of hours and walked the dogs as well as played with dogs and cats. The first few days were pretty rough on some of the poor pets as they were scared and lonely. Many did open up after a day or two and started having fun playing with others they were not even friends with until the flooding.

By the calm of a week after the worst many of the dogs and cats went home or to other situations that owners had arranged, the obedience school had about 50 dogs and cats at the most during the first part of the flood. The staff were pretty overwhelmed so it was good we were close by and could help them. It also helped their owners so they had one less thing to worry about.

Several other area shelters and businesses helped as well including the local zoo that took in exotic pets like snakes and lizards. The local fair grounds opened a building for horses and other large animals and had a lot of them, not sure of the numbers but over a hundred if my memory serves me.

Now everything is quite in town, Moorhead and Fargo, and we are waiting for the river to go up again when the temps start to go up as well. Hopefully we have seen the worst but I know there are plenty of people who will jump in and help.

Thanks to all those that helped out.

Jeff

New Offer, same old wait.

2009-04-05T18:05:00.000-07:00

We made an offer on a new home, well used but it will be our new home, if, when, please when. It's quite exciting but also quite nerve wracking to have to wait for an acceptance or rejection of our offer.

This house is large compared to our previous offers but is not the best location, beggars can't be choosers. This home has some great old woodwork and a decent sized yard as well as three full bedrooms upstairs and two garages. It is a REO, real estate owned, and is going for way less than market value but they probably just want to get rid of it. We have looked and did not find anything major wrong with it but will leave that to a house inspection, if we get it.

Till then I just can't wait, please ring phone.

Oh, wait, it's still Sunday.

Too Many Apps, Get a Life

2009-03-23T17:09:00.000-07:00

With so many people stuck to or have one stuck in their ear the current trend of Apps for cell phones is putting way too much emphasis on cell phones. I cannot stand when people are driving around talking on their cell phone, this is so dangerous.

But when people are walking around the store doing their shopping and gabbing to others that is just ridiculous. People need to pay attention to their current situation and not gabbing away talking to someone while they're doing other things.

Cell phones are great and very useful but it's just stupid to wander around a store or drive around and talk. I don't care what anyone says, you are not paying full attention to what you are doing if you are also talking on a cell phone.

Now we have all kinds of useless apps for our cell phones. Life will not be easier because we can search the internet at lightning speeds while driving around or order a pizza while on our way to pick it up only to end up in a fender bender while trying to decide if we want pepperoni or sausage.

What we need is a phone that shuts off if we are in public or moving faster than a slow walk.

BRRRR!!!

2009-03-12T08:54:00.000-07:00

We are still digging out from the March blizzard and it is supposed to be getting warmer, maybe above zero today. Hopefully we will not get much more snow and/or rain as the river will get a little too full and start in on Fargo and Moorhead again.

We are still looking for a home and have not been able to get one in our price range, lower $70k, but are hopeful with spring just around the corner. We have looked at a few and even bid on two but did not get them. One is still on the market so maybe after the bank doesn't get any other bids they will consider us, one can always hope on the bank not get any bids part.

Some of the homes we looked at are quite good with plenty of potential but the main problem is that they would probably not pass a VA/FHA home inspection, one was really not going to pass. We do have a couple that are currently being rented and are waiting work if the current tenants will be signing another year long lease and if they don't we may be able to work some deals there but time will only tell.

Hope everyone is having a nice end of winter and looking toward a bright spring.

New Home???

2009-02-26T10:28:00.000-08:00

We looked at a new home and are considering purchasing it, as long as things go well with the price.

Our agent is looking into a few things for us and will get back to us soon.

I have looked at several houses in our price range and area but this is the first that looks actually in great shape to move into right away.

I will be posting a review very soon on the book 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask, by Ilyce R. Glink and have to say this book is great. I have already found out a lot before getting this book but would have been much better off purchasing it than spending hours at my computer. Much of the information in 100 Questions is also available from the internet but its the time spent at the computer that takes its toll. I have spent numerous hours searching sites for information that is readily available all in one place and so well explained that this is one book that is a must for first time home buyers.

More when my review is complete.

Jeff

House Hunting

2009-02-12T20:06:00.000-08:00

(and still not finding those elusive critters)

Yes, my house hunting has been continuing the past few months now. I have looked at several homes and even made an offer on one to no avail. Seems they just don't want to jump in front of my gun sights.

Okay, enough with the jokes, we have looked at several homes and even made an offer on one but we were not accepted and so it continues. We have an excellent buyers agent working with us and have also been doing a lot of work on our own by searching the internet and even researching the whole process.

A good purchase for this would be a book, you know those paper things with words on the pages inside. 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask is a great one and I will be reviewing it fully on my site. It gives all those answers to common and even uncommon questions about home buying that you should learn before starting your home buying experience.

Well, its off to bed and the my next viewing is tomorrow so I should get tons of sleep dreaming about moving all my stuff.

Beware scam reviews

2009-01-31T15:31:00.000-08:00

Hello, I know its been awhile but things have been happening in my life.

I recently came across a heart wrenching ad and wanted to share it with you, in summary.

"Review writer wanted, I need a person who can look at a sales page for a product and write a review making it seem like they have owned the product but without ever having laid eyes on it."

This is deplorable for the likes of me, the honest person who reviews products after working so hard to actually get them from the companies and check them out for real. I can understand how people want to find work but this sort of thing happens often in the writing business and I hate it, but of course I would.

These types of people who use internet browsing to review products can review anything they want and find all kinds of things to review without ever having seen the product or checked them out. I understand how they want to make money anyway they can but I cannot understand how anyone with morals or integrity could fall for this type of work.

When I review a product I always take my own product shots unless some sort of size problem prevents me or for movies I usually use the cover of the movie but I have honestly seen the product in my hot little hands and can tell you about it from real experience.

Jeff

Computer Problems

2008-12-30T10:33:00.000-08:00

I found out why my computer would not turn on correctly:

The image you see is a burned out chip on the circuit board of a hard drive, notice burn at center of large chip along pins. I was using the old 20GB hard drive as a memory page file for image editing so I did not use my regular C drive and could have a very large page file.

I went to start my computer and would get through part of bios, those lines of text about your computer when you first press the power button, and it would go to a blank screen with the blinking cursor. This blank screen with blinking cursor means the computer will not bootup completely for some reason or that it is booting up but you are not getting any video. In my case I was not booting up because this drive was causing the system to not go to the other drive for the Windows startup.

I started with basic troubleshooting and eliminated items in the computer one by one to make sure they were not causing me problems and this was one of the first to try. Once I disconnected the drive it would start up just fine and a quick inspection of the drive showed the burned out chip on the drives backside.

I do remember smelling something odd, that hot electronics smell, the other day but dismissed it when everything ran fine that day, but not the next. Now I know what I was smelling and everything is fine once again with my work computer.

Lesson learned: don't ignore that smell and when you troubleshoot a computer, disconnect everything not required for bootup to start with basics and work from there.

Scammers Beware, I am on to you!

2008-12-30T09:53:00.001-08:00

A few times now I have wasted the time and possibly saved someone else some hassles with these scammers. It's fun for me. It may not be for you if you fall for it.

I have had two separate people, maybe from the same place but who knows, call me saying congrats you have won millions of dollars, or a bunch of trips or a car. It doesn't matter what they promise you've won its always the same. You have to give them some money in order to get your money or other winnings.

It's always a scam, so do not believe them. No matter what if you have won something, they should send it to you free of charge. If it is a legitimate business or organization that has entered you in their lottery or whatever and you have won you will get your winnings without any fees, costs or anything from you. No matter what do not send them money, do not give them account numbers or any information about your banking or your social security number.

Any legitimate organization will not need to know anything from you except where to send it, your home address. They will not need bank information, that's up to you. They will not need anything from you except an address of where to send the money or check. They should want a picture of you getting the money, that's how lotteries and winning works. They get publicity and want it, if you win something big and they don't want the publicity they are scammers.

I love wasting their time by letting them get through their big talk of how I won millions or those fancy trips and then when they ask for things like what bank I start asking them for their information. Of course they won't give me anything except a PO box and a phone number as well as a reference to a website that could be anyones.

When I start asking them for a physical address to give to the FBI or FTC they quickly start in on the back pedal and how they do not need to give out that information. If I wanted to pick up the check that would be out of the question as well, "we do not do that". Because they do not want me to see the banks of phones with people trying to rip off others who are just honest working people.

Do yourself and your family a favor, if someone calls and tells you you won something, tell them to send it, but do not give them anything they do not already know about you. If you won something from someone and it is real, they will send it without you having to pay anything. If there is a fee, a payment for insurance or taxes, then it is a scam.

Winning stuff does happen, but you do not have to pay anything to get it.

Taxes may have to be paid but that is up to you, not the organization giving out the winnings.

Always be suspiscious of any calls saying you won, and give them no information they do not already have.

Blu-ray

2008-12-21T16:35:00.000-08:00

Okay, its been a month since I last posted and wanted to see if anyone would miss me, possibly not.

I was going to just let this drop but we'll see if we get any interested or if it's only you Ken.

Blu-ray movies are such a mixed bag it is not funny. One one hand you have the disc that can hold a couple of movies or a movie and a ton of additional features and on the other hand you have BD Live.

BD Live was supposed to be this great new feature of movies where they could add stuff after the movie shipped that was relevant to the movie as well as content that came after. Movie awards and other things that add to the movie like actor, director and producer goings on after the film version has shipped out on disc but still stuff the viewer may be interested in. BD Live has been a flop as far as I am concerned and I have to say I am disappointed.

Sony and Disney have hyped it and Disney is the only one to do much with it other than show trailers of other films. Disney did a great job with the reward system using games as a way to earn points toward purchasing more bonus features, avatars and other things but there is still not much else to get on any BD Live features.

If this is going to be such a great new entertaining way to get more out of a disc, please make it worth my while to put the disc in and use the feature. How about some new stuff on the movie like special features of the sequels or about the actors new movies they will be working on.

WALL-E is here!!!

2008-11-13T17:24:00.000-08:00

WALL-E is finally here and my BLu-Ray and 3-Disc Special Edition reviews will be hitting my site and AC very soon, its a great film and one for the whole family.

WALL-E and all his friends are here just in time for Thanksgiving and even BURN-E gets his own piece of the action in the short film BURN-E.

Look for WALL-E on Blu-Ray and DVD soon, until then check out my reviews.

Jeff

AIG should sink, not swim.

2008-11-11T15:52:00.000-08:00

AIG has some guts to ask for more money after spending millions on exec fun and parties. Now they ask for more money and have the guts to say the money they spent was aimed at boosting income, sounds to me like the only income they boosted was toward their own fun.

A business should sink or swim on its own merits, the government should not bail them out when they are a business that is like any other. They should have to either make a profit or go bankrupt just like any other. Just because they are large and employ a lot more people does not make them any more important or better.

If our country and ecomonic setup lets any business go to the government everytime it needs help and the government will always be there with a free handout our economic system will fail. It may not be today or tommorow but years down the road when the government has given so many loans to failing companies that it cannot sustain itself our government will not be able to pay for its own upkeep.

Say no to bailouts for companies who don't even care how they spend our hard earned tax dollar.

Obama and his new dog

2008-11-06T05:46:00.000-08:00

I just saw on the news about the promise President elect Obama made to his daughters about getting them a new dog when they move to the White House. Let's rally behind the cause and send a message for them to adopt a rescue dog from a shelter and show the country that we care about the plight of the homeless dogs and cats across this country.

A great time for everyone

2008-11-05T10:21:00.000-08:00

This is truly a great time in our nation and world. A lot of firsts and now a first African American as President.

People will truly have to get with the times and those that are stuck back in the past will just have to quite using race and sex to get anywhere.

One thing I just cannot stand is people using their race for or against in anything and now they will not have the excuse of race as a way to say they have been down trodden. I think race is a thing of the past and too many times in recent years people have been using race not to hold others back but to complain and explain why they can't get ahead.

Pick yourself up and make your own way through life, don't let anyone tell you that you can't. Look where it got our newest President.

Don't use your race, sex or anything about you as a negative or a way to get ahead, use your talent, intelligence and hard work to do things and get things done.

VOTE

2008-11-02T13:23:00.000-08:00

Everyone should vote in a couple of days, there is no excuse and no reason. If you don't vote for someone you want to see in office at least vote against someone you don't want in office.

Yes, while this is backwards you may not think of voting against someone its better than not voting. To not vote for someone or against another someone means you just don't care enough to stop by on the way to or from work and make a diffrence in who is running your government.

If you say your vote doesn't matter I say you should be looking at who you don't want in office and vote for the other guy. This way at least someone will not make it into office because enough people either wanted the other guy or at least not him.

So vote.

Life or Something Like It

2008-10-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

I have recently been doing a lot of Internet TV watching, a lot for me is more than one show a day.

I found out about Hulu and found a few shows I like but two that is great, Life and Burn Notice. I just saw Life with this scene that was great, the shows story is a guy is set up for a murder and spends 12 years in jail for a crime he did not commit. Part of his settlement is he gets to go back to his job, as a police officer. He's back on the force as a detective and starting over as well as looking into who set him up.

After twelve years he is a little out of touch with things and some of the scenes like a bathroom with him trying to figure out how to turn on the faucet that has no handles is great. Computers and chats are also good but this was hilarious, a little kid comes in and tells him its automatic. Then he goes to dry his hands and can't figure out how to make that work, the kid pulls the towel out for him and tells him that is not automatic.

Life is kind of like that, you try to figure something out and suddenly someone else comes along and shows you how simple it really is.

Google has a browser

2008-09-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

Check out the Google Browser at their website, it looks interesting and with Google's history should be good.

I have been so busy but in a great way, lots of reviews as well as fun family stuff. I have been really busy reviewing a lot of great products, and even a few stinkers, but most pretty good ones.

I currently have some great games to review and just finished a good one, Crysis Warhead and the multiplayer Crysis Wars. I also have the PS3 and XBox 360 game Broithers in Arms: Hells Highway that should be pretty good given the past great games from the same company.

I also have been doing a lot of photography products and even have more coming soon, a pretty good lens form Tamron for my Canon Rebel XSi camera and have some other products coming soon.

Look for my reviews of the Sansa View and the second season of Eureka.

"John Adams" Wins

2008-09-15T15:32:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the HBO cast, crew, directors, producers and writers of HBO’s "John Adams" that received Emmy awards for casting, costumes, prosthetic makeup, visual effects, sound mixing, editing, cinematography and art direction.

John Adams is a great and insightful look at the life and contributions that one of our founding fathers gave to this country. I reviewed the miniseries recently and am not surprised at all by the awards that are so richly deserved.

Olympics and World Peace

2008-08-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

Well, the 2008 Olympics are just about over, the closing ceremonies are playing as I write this.

It was great to see such peace and cooperation in the midst of the trials and tribulations that started the Olympics and the events in Russia and Georgia.

Athletes shaking hands, slapping each others backs and generally congratulating them when they just broke their own chances at a medal was great sportsmanship. Competition is a great thing but at this level it is nice to see that most of the participants have a sense of fair play and sportsmanship not only for their team but for everyone attending.

Robin Williams once joked about China and how 1 billion people could say Boom and make the same effect of a nuclear bomb, or something like that. Wouldn't that be great, not the bomb part but a lot of people doing that at the same time.

How about this, what a world it would be if we could all do something together, well maybe not together but at the same time.

What if everyone in the world jumped a foot off the ground at Midnight, 12:00 Greenwich Time, New Years, 2009.

If everyone in the world could pause with their rejoicing as well as their problems, difficulties, sorrow and pain to do something they know so many others are doing, what would that be able to accomplish in our world.

A sense of belonging and togetherness that would be larger than any individual thing we each ourselves have done, or could do.

Let's try it, why not?

BigFoot Real or worth a Milliion Bucks?

2008-08-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

Many of you may have heard of two Georgia men, officers of the law no less, who found a dead Bigfoot and stuffed it into a freezer, then sent blood samples to a entomologist in Minnesota for proof of their discovery.

I just ran across an interesting article in the current issue of Field and Stream Magazine which led me to a website, fstrailcamcontest.com, that has a contest for pics of the elusive hairy little sucker that is worth a million dollars. Field and Stream will pay $1 million for a verifiable photo of sasquatch and then the magazine will reap the rewards on their pages.

Well, I guess since they have no proof other than some anonymous University of Minnesota professor that has some funny results from stuff he got sent that the proof is literaly in the pudding, if that is what they sent him. Why did they have a news conference in Palo Alto California when they found the thing in Georgia and sent their evidence to Minnesota?

Kind of boggles the mind why they would spend so much on postage costs and travel expenses. Plus, why send evidence to some remote University when Georgia has plenty of good schools locally that they probably could have driven a sample right over to for testing.

I think they are after the big bucks of publicly by defrauding the whole country and making some real publicity for themselves instead of really working for a living.

Kind of sad when you think about it, would you want to be the kids known as the ones whos dad's mad such a fuss over stuffing last years Halloween party costume into the garage freezer and saying it was Bigfoot.

Black & Decker Airless Sprayer Pro

2008-08-02T19:11:00.000-07:00

What a week, first I go on a mini vacation that involves hiking around pointing out the wildlife to my wife and son to shoot with their cameras. Fun stuff as I enjoy hiking in the woods and all but I was the one who found all the wildlife as it would seem I am the only scout in the family. Tree frogs and snakes do not apparently jump out at my family to have their pictures taken, so I have to hunt them down and point them out to my less sharp eyed family members.

Then we go to our sister in laws new cabin that is being built and help them start the interior finishing and what a job. They decided to have the exterior professionally prepped, stained and sealed to save on the work but we did the interior, or started.

First you have to sand down any rough spots and then coat with sanding sealer, then apply the polyurathane top coat.

Thank heaven for the B&D Airless Sprayer Pro 5.5, this little gem saved the day and we did one large room and a couple of smaller ones with the sanding sealer in half a day. The paint sprayer was so very easy to use and worked like a champ for the whole job.

The sprayer is so easy to use by one person, you hold the paint can in one hand with the hose in it and sprayer in the other and paint away. I did some painting aropund the house when I checked out the sprayer but nothing like this and it works great.

I really do recommend the Black & Decker sprayer for an easy to use and clean sprayer for any jobs that you don't want to rent a bigger spray gun. This worked very well for the water cleanup sanding sealer, now we'll just have to see about the rest.

StarGate: Continuum

2008-07-21T19:52:00.000-07:00

StarGate: Continumm is almost here and is a must see for StarGate and Sci-Fi fans, its a great movie with all the elements that make a movie really good.

The actors all are very comfortable in their parts and really enjoy what they're doing, some more than others by the joking and behind the scenes shots. The directors and producers have all their skills honed after years of working with the same story, set, crew and actors but have not lost the edge they need to still come out with enjoyable entertainment.

The story is there with plenty of action and a wealth of extras on the DVD for anyone to enjoy with how they shot on such a tight budget and the remote location shots in the Artic.

I hope they continue this great tradition of movie making with more StarGate movies and the series Atlantis.

Sadly one of the great actors that was a part of seven seasons of the StarGate: SG1 show has passed recently.

Don S. Davis who played George Hammond passed away recently and will be missed by all his friends and fans.

Exciting new stuff coming soon...

2008-07-07T12:06:00.000-07:00

I have some really great reviews coming soon along with some great ones just posted.

StarGate: Continuum is a great science fiction direct to DVD movie from the creators of StarGate: SG1 and StarGate: Atlantis that will release on July 29, 2008. The movie continues the drama and adventure of the StarGate but is a self contained story so if you have never seen a StarGate show you won't be missing out on anything.

I am receiving a new Canon XSi digital SLR camera and will be using it for my product shots and reviews as well as writing a review on the camera in the near future so stay tuned for that.

I am also receiving some current top of the line graphics cards from Foxconn and will be reviewing those before the end of July.

I will also be posting a comparison of five DTV converters from Digital Stream, RCA, Zenith, Channel Master and GE. I will have an Excel spreadsheet detailing the features and differences to help everyone with selecting their own DTV converter boxes. YOu should really be thinking of getting yours soon as the coupon program is in full swing and you don't want to be left out.

Hope you had a great 4th of July and have a fun summer.

Annoying Websites

2008-06-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

Nothing annoys me more than going to a website and when I try to close it , the darn thing won't.

You've probably had this happen to you and I really should not have even bothered going there in the first place but who do these people think they are fooling?

I get lots of junk mail just like the rest of you, we all do, so when something doesn't get caught by my internet providers spam bots and my own internet security program, Trend Micro's, than I am interested in seeing what's up. So I click on this one, some dumb add for a guy selling a guaranteed way to earn $24,000 in 24 hours or some such nonsense, and try to close the web page. It pops up a box and says you really don't want to close this do you, when you click on the red X it opens the page again and other junk.

If you click on other buttons in the pop up window it just goes back to that page or others just like it from this guy who is getting rich not off his money making scheme but your money for telling you how to get rich. Its an endless cycle and only stops if you Ctrl Alt Del and close Internet Explorer.

These people think that if I get taken back to the page I started at I will suddenly think, "Hey they really want me to look at this so I should pay attention..."

Instead what I am thinking is ,"&^*% *@^#^ $&^*& ^(*&* (*(&& ^%%$"!!!

They are not going to impress me by using the close box of the web page as a link back to their web page or other such silly things with web pages and they are just going to get people mad, so why bother.

It's this silly idea that people trying to sell you an idea on how to get rich will try anything to sell you their "Miracle get rich quick scheme that works all the time or double your money back." Add in any term that would apply as to why anyone from that web site would want you to stay there.

In fact it only gets him richer and you less by the cost of his program, but I digress, I was on the topic of silly web page tricks and not on people falling for money making schemes that don't really work.

If you do get stuck in one of those web page black holes where pages just keep opening up and you keep going nowhere, open up the Windows Task Manager by holding down the Control, Alt and hitting the Delete key, click on Start Task Manager and then on the Applications Tab highlight the Internet Explorer, big E with gold circle, by clicking on it and click on End Task.

This will close your Web Browser and get rid of all those popups and stuff, you can just open up Internet Explorer again and even go back to pages you may have been on before you visited the web page nightmare using your History.

By the way there is a real way to make lots of money, its called a job. If your good at something that others want or need, you'll make money at it. Otherwise it's the same old deal, I'll sell you these magic beans that will solve all your worldly problems, and it will only cost you every penny you have plus 10%.

Beware Windows Vista Updates

2008-06-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

I had an odd and very frustrating thing happen over the last few weeks and ending yesterday. I updated Windows Vista on my two computers like I do routinely as well as some house keeping like backups and cleaning out old programs.

One update, not sure which one but others have had this, really trashed my startup.

First my loading bar, that little green bar that comes on your screen while Windows Vista does its thing to get ready for work, was pausing for a half a minute while Vista was laoding on startup.

I would have this half a minute delay during Windows bootup and it was annoying because nothing I could do seemed to make a difference. I looked at boot logs and several drivers were failing to load repeatedly and finally they would get together and work correctly.

Yesterday it got really worse, it would take three minutes for Vista to load and I got sick of this. After much internet searching they were complaining mostly about USB devices in a recent update of Vista, I removed all USB devices during startup to no avail. Then one post on a forum mentioned memory card readers as USB devices and my problems were solved.

I removed the memory card reader bay device I had in the computer and my computer no longer paused at all during startup. Get your aact together Microsoft and stop updating stuff that doesn't update things but makes things worse for many.

This was a very frustrating thing as UI tried to find out the cause of something that had nothing to do with my system but with something Microsoft said I needed.

Just goes to show that somethings are not what we do or have but its the other guys fault.

If your having computer problems, especially errors or something that says something, find out more about it on the internet. Type your exact problem in google and you can often find several people who have the same problem. To find a solution add "solved" to your search and you can get several cures, hopefully.

Work from home, can you handle it?

2008-06-17T07:32:00.000-07:00

Work from home, is it everything its cracked up to be?

I work from home and have really settled into my work with a vengeance. Yes, its great to be able to hop out of bed, grab a cup of coffee and my morning meal and jump onto the computer. But is it that great?

First off my situation is a lot different than other people's, I choose to do this due to my situation and my talent for writing. Many people will not be able to work from home as easily as I have. Others can but will find it difficult to do as they think differently than I do, you need to think like it's a job and even a career.

I start off my day when the wife goes off to work herself, at a daycare. I work from home and do work, hard. I spend my day writing, checking out products and doing occasional errands for my work, shipping items or running to the store for product pricing or getting additional things for my reviews like ink for printers, accessories and even other products to use as a comparison.

I spend probably eight to eleven hours a day working, five or six days a week. I get up at seven and by seven thiry I am starting up my computers and getting organized for the day, without fail. I have regular business hours as I do get deliveries from that magical 7 AM when FedEx and UPS start delivering. I end my day usually checking mail and a few websites for new products around 10 PM.

In between I will stop for lunch, usually around 12 or 1 and then again about 3 I stop for an hour TV break, Peopl's Court, and to start dinner if I am not too busy. I will watch TV while working sometimes if there are some shows on I like but I usually work from around 6 or 7 to ten at night. Some nights I stop and watch tv, usually Tuesdays for NCIS and Hell's Kitchen but most of the week I spend working in the evening.

I work Saturdays and Sundays when my family schedule allows but sometimes we go out of town for family time or visiting the relatives but I am always flexible. My two sons are involved with 4-H and sometimes I have to go with them as driver or just to help out, like today. This schedule is flexible and that is what makes it work for me.

If you think working from home is all bells and whistles, or working in your PJ's the shippers would not agree, they would not appreciate me signing for a package in my underwear. I also do not make a lot of money even though I do get to keep some of the products I review. Its not the dream job but I am working toward getting more into writing and doing something other than this in the future, writing for better pay.

If you want to work from home you have to make it a regular job with set, but flexible hours. But do not think it is all the fun and games it may seem like. I am not making tons of money because I don't drive to work, I do have lots of flexibility so it evens out for me.

Any job is just that, work and how much effort you put into it is going to show in what you earn from it, an office job is just as much work as anything else.

You have to put effort into anything you do if you want to get the rewards from it. That is the main point for any job anywhere.

Customer Service Purgatory

2008-05-28T05:40:00.000-07:00

MSN has released their second ranking of customer service bad guys from a 7,000 person study and ranked the top ten as a Hall of Shame winners. I have to agree that this is particularly a bad idea and cannot understand a company who does not put an effort into service for their customers.

I used to have QWest for my home phone service and was so frustrated with their customer service I quite them and went local, and have never looked back. I was having problems and eveytime I would call it would be the usual wait for someone human after navigating the robot operator menus and finally get told by someone with very poor english that I would have to wait a few weeks for that to get resolved.

There were other problems like trying to stop the service itself, I could not talk to the customer service representative, I had to talk to their supervisor in order to get the service turned off and to get the overpaid $40 sent back to me and I had to really convince them that I wanted the money back. Just the fact that I had to argue for almost an hour with someone to convince them that I wanted my money back and wanted nothing to do with their company was reason enough for me.

Now I get the obligatory phone call about once every other month begging me to come back to QWest and I tell them why? I can get my home phone service, high speed internet, real high speed not trumped up dial up, and a website hosting for $100 a month, can you match that? I usually get a long pause and then a back peddling that just makes my day. I then ask them about problems and where I can find solutions, down the block or some other state?

I have a local company for my phone and internet that has an office, their main office in town, so I can walk or drive to their office during business hours and rant and rave all I want in person for any problems. Better yet when I was having a problem getting my first laptop on the internet and connected I took it to their office, a help desk person came out from the back and we got it working, their fault and not mine but that is customer service. Not someone on a phone who wants to get you off the phone as soon as possible. I like my local phone and internet service and would have a hard time switching to anyone else. 702 Communications has done great by me and I highly recommend you see if you have a local phone company you can go with, customer service in person makes a world of difference.

That goes with anything really, if you can go with a local company that has a main office in your town you can get much better service as a general rule for customer service, its kind of hard to tell a customer in person to wait weeks for something or that they cannot help you. Try looking them in the eye when your having a problem and want help, this usually gets them to at least do something instead of always having the option to say we're sorry and hang up.

Local service in person gets more done for you and you always have the option to walk to the supervisor and tell them what you think of their company.

Digital TV and the converters

2008-05-20T20:07:00.000-07:00

Time is running out so you better get your converters soon, or at least start looking. And do send in those requests for the converter box coupons before they run out.

Okay they are not going to run out but I do know that some of the companies have had a hard time just keeping some of these on store shelves. Zenith is one such product and their Digital to Analog converter DTX900 is selling faster than they can manufacture so keeping them on stores shelves at Radio Shack is difficult. And do wait till you are sure of which converter you want because the coupons do have an expiration date on them, they are good for 90 days and have a date right on the card.

But I do have the inside track on one and should be getting it for review very soon. So check my site for that review as well as a few others I am getting and will be reviewing soon.

I do believe I will be receiving one from Channel Master as well and I will be using a couple of coupons for relatives to help them purchase theirs as well. Of course I will also be helping them set them up and figure out how to use them so I may as well do a review on 'em as well.

One thing that is nice about this whole coupon and DTV thing is there are plenty of people out there now looking for the same thing and I just love being able to help you make up your mind and get the right converter for your needs.

That is the one thing I truly enjoy about reviewing, helping other make a purchase decision and when friends ask what my opinion is I really get a warm feeling way down deep when I am able to help them out.

Wait, that may just be the acid reflux, where did I put those Tums.

Solid State Drives Price Now in Affordable Ranges

2008-05-16T04:17:00.000-07:00

SSD's or Solid State Drives, not to be confused with STD's which are not hardware, are the newest technology and are finally coming down in price. You can go to Newegg right now, I really don't know how long this phenomenon will be around, and buy a 128 GB SSD for $3,049 or a newer 120 GB for $669.

Is that a great price difference or what? Across the board Super Talent has lowered the price of the newest technology in their line of three new SSD's and makes them now affordable with prices from $299 for a 30GB to the $699 for the 120GB drive.

This brings the prices now in the range of some of us and makes it possible to at least purchase solid state drives for our operating systems so that we can have the super speeds and reliability that all electronic drives brings. I can surely see a day soon, this year?, when solid state drives will be the same price or even beating the price of mechanical drives. After all you can purchase a really good SCSI drive for about the same price as a much better Super Talent SSD.

Ain't technology wonderful.

My Vices

2008-05-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

I have what I consider two vices, and I love them. I just love cappuccino's and The Peoples Court.

I really enjoy drinking all kinds of coffee concoctions I make with the espresso amd cappucinno makers I have reviewed and everyday at 3:00 I try very hard to watch my favorite show The People's Court. I find the show fascinating the same way people love to watch train wrecks.

I hate it when people come on the show and have no remorse for their despicable actions and yet I can't wait to see the judge roll her eyes or hold up that big L for these people.

One I just cannot believe and yet it happens again and again is the "friend" who needs some money and of course will pay them back just as soon as they can. A true friend will give the money without a second thought but the same true friend on the other end of the relationship will only ask for the money if they absolutely and possitively cannot get the help anywhere else.

A true friend will give the money and the true friend will always give it back when they can in someway. A true friend will not have to take the other to court because they understand each other and have already made good on their promise in some way, no matter how small.

I have a picture that shows just what I mean:

Three gerbils, one holding the foot of another dangling from a branch. The first gerbil is holding the branch above them and holding his friends foot as the friend is giving a gift to the third gerbil on the branch below the two. The third gerbil sniffs the flower as the two struggle to hold on and give a gift to the third. I can imagine the two dangling gerbils and the one of course is not complaining at all, knowing he is helping his friend give a gift that is important to all three of them.

More busy busy, well, you get the idea.

2008-05-05T13:54:00.000-07:00

I keep getting more stuff to review and I get more and more behind. But its fun and I am getting some really great products and games.

Grand Theft Auto IV just came today, here will be a real review of the game from a skeptic of this sort of shoot em up as the bad guys. I really do like gaming but am not really fond of games that glorify bad guys and violence, we shall see though, and you'll have to go to Game Chronicles to see my review when it does post.

I am also just about done with the PC version of Turok and it is really much better than the Xbox one, by far. Totally playable and enjoyable, its great being able to knok off the bad guys by sitting and watching the dinos and them fight it out.

Some other interesting products that are upcoming is my review on the Visiontek HD 3870X2 card that I am checking out. I will also be doing some work with ATI CrossfireX in that review for a little comparison of what three video graphics processors will do with gaming.

Another great deal, I just got a Nintendo DS lite, Dark Blue, so I now have all the current gaming consoles. Just need to get some cool games for that and I will be all set, of course I don't have much time to enjoy many games but hey, you can't have your cake and expect to eat it without gaining the few extra pounds.

Have a good one...

Busy, busy busy.

2008-04-23T20:06:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy lately. Spring is here and with it the first week of May.

Yes, I know they go hand in hand but here in Moorhead ,Minnesota that means yearly garbage pickup for large stuff. We have one week in the year that we can get rid of things like old furniture, dead appliances and large garbage that is not able to fit into our garbage cans for the city to pick up. And we don't get charged for this wonderful service. So this means its time to clean out the basement, garage and everywhere else to get rid of everything we don't need.

So I have to rush around and get into the garage and find all that stuff I have to throw out and clean, clean, clean. Being home most of the time I do most of the cleaning anyway but the basement and garage are by right mine, mine to clean. So I have started on that as well as my other work here.

And I hate crawling around in the basement and garage. But it's got to get done so I put up with the creepy crawlies and do it.

I also have to start cleaning up the yard from the winter and mow the lawn and such but it's not too hard. The city was nice enough to put up a fence for me that took out several feet along the back, oops, they wanted the fence to keep people from wandering across the railroad tracks but its nice for me to have less yard to mow as well. They fenced in the railroad tracks so they could run the trains through town without tooting the horns at every intersection and waking the dead as they go through.

Its really nice not to hear them as much but they still make enough noise, just not the blaring loud horns right behind the house. Someday we'll get a new place of our own, far from the tracks of downtown Moorhead, until then we have cheap rent and a great landlord.

Have a great spring.

Plagiarism and you.

2008-04-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

Plagiarism is the use of someone else's words without their consent or permission. In the world of writing this is stealing an authors work and is a crime. This was made known to me by a press release from a site called TechWareLabs who is a great hardware and software review site for computers and related products.

There is one main article that was allegedly stolen word for word by Grand Island Computer's, even the picture was copied from TechWareLabs directly. They cannot do this kind of stealing blatently as it will affect so many things if people get away with this kind of crime.

You may wonder why would we worry about the stealing of an article from one site by another, this would not affect me in any way.

Think about it though, how will it end if sites just copy stuff from others without permission and without paying for the hard work of others.

I think something needs to be done and quickly, send your thoughts to TechWareLabs and give them your support, send your complanits to Grand Island Computers.

Whew, repairs on car done.

2008-04-07T12:45:00.001-07:00

I started having this problem on my mini van and found out this is a common one.

The serpintine belt slipped off the pulley's and I had to stick it back on out in the cold and snow. This happened again a few hours later and I searched the internet for an answer and found a really good one.

It seems on many Caravan's, Voyager's and Town & Country mini van's of certain years, about 1993 to 2000, the serpintine belt comes off easily and will continue to slip off freely once it starts doing this.

The fix is installing a different pulley and tensioner that is ribbed instead of a smooth one, Gates has both sets, as well as a new double sided serpintine belt. The belt and parts is about $200 and the job will cost about that much or less depending on where you are. I did it myself and found it quite easy but it is a bit of a difficult job.

A few hints that may help are using the old belt to hold the wrench that pulls the tensioner with your foot. This way you have both hands free to work inside the engine to put on the belt. Several people said you have to use the alternate method to get the new belt on of putting the belt on the water pump last but I found it easy enough to put it on the idler pulley last as long as you use a ratcheting wrench to pull back the tensioner.

It worked like a charm after I bought all the parts and the proper tools to get the job done correctly. You can always do a good job with the correct tools and having them handy and where you can find them makes a big difference.

If you have a problem look on the internet for an answer, you never know what you'll find.

I just love flat tires!

2008-04-06T19:11:00.000-07:00

I hate working on my car when I can't find out what's wrong, at least with a flat tire you know there is something stuck in it or wass stuck in it.

You can easily see a hole or find it with a garden hose and air inside the tire. Many other things with a car are a bit harder to find but with some quick internet searching you can quickly and easily find out what to do or at least where to start looking.

That is what I just love about the internet.

Years ago when I had a problem with my vehicle I would go to the library and pour over their Chilton's and other repair books for some clues but now we can so easily search the internet to find out what is wrong what to do about it and even how much we can expect to pay. The same things is true about most everything we deal with i our daily lives that others have problems with as well.

If you have a problem with anything in your life and want an answer, try looking on the internet for an answer, if someone else has come across the same thing maybe they have put their same problem on the internet and a possible solution.

From cars to toasters and even personal relationships there are websites and search engines to help you find out solutions to all of life's problems, even personal and family ones.

All these consoles, not a game worth playing.

2008-04-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

I have all the major consoles, Wii, PS3, XBox 360 and the PSP and there are not many games worth playing out for them. All the money I have put into the consoles and the PC still shines in the gaming department.

Seriously, some of the games that have come out in the last six months have been pretty decent but the shining star is still the PC and its host of classic games, Crysis and Call of Duty 4, just to name a few. I really enjoy first person shooters and am still having a problem with the XBox 360 and its totally unreliable control for the cursor while in a first person shooter.

Yes, I know practice makes perfect but I am not the only one complaining about this. The consoles do not have the control that a mouse does and even the FPS things that XCM have come out with do not equal the mouse for the PC. Some of the games I am looking forward to are coming out soon but I really don't see very many for the top of the line PS3 that are all that exciting coming soon.

Could somebody please think up a good storyline, good control scheme and a great long lasting single player campaign for a first person shooter for the PS3 to let me while away the lonely nights.

There just has to be a game worth the $50+ price tag they keep putting on these games that is really worth that much coming out soon, I hope, Please...

Some Great Movies

2008-03-23T19:45:00.000-07:00

I have recently been watching a lot of movies, a lot for me is more than say five a week. And by watching them I mean actually sitting down on the couch, doing nothing but watching the movie and not working while watching.

I have seen some really good movies including Dan in Real Life, Hitman and Enchanted. I enjoyed Hitman as they did a superb job of taking the games style and storyline and equating it to a movie that held interest and gave the guy a purpose other than to just off people for the money. The story led somewhere and not only told the what, how and why of what he does for a living but gave some insight into his soul as a person, even if it is hard one.

Enchanted was a fantastic Disney classic with all the right ingredients for a hit film of music, comedy and great acting from real characters as well as the cartoon portions. They did a fine job of blending the two areas of film and combining them in only the way the real Disney could have. I really miss the old style of Disney when he was alive and it is a shame that his family ruined the company with all the fuss over his legacy.

Dan in Real Life was a great story about a person living his life like so many of us and just getting that one chance at a little happiness. The guy is struggling so hard just to keep everyone else in his life happy instead of himself and finally gets to meet that special someone only to find out she is already taken. The acting is great in that real life way that only some actors can have come across in the big screen that we know really happens to so many people.

Some of the movies I am also looking forward to seeing are AVP Requeim and National Treasure 2. I love how the Aliens movies have always been some subtle form of the same universe and even the most recent have tied so well into the others even though they are so long apart from each other.

I love well made movies and so often many of them slip through the cracks of time and work. I enjoy watching good movies and even shows like Star Gate SG-1 but just don't have the time to do as much of it with all my writing. The cost of having to actually pursure a dream as well as work for a living.

Have fun.

It's free speech, but is it right?

2008-03-20T06:12:00.000-07:00

I just heard a story on GMA, my favorite show in the morning, about a website called Juicy Campus. The site is fine for the people that want to joke and have fun posting stuff about each other but many are using it as a hate site and a way to post malicious content about others including racist, sexist and many derogatory things.

I think it is appalling for people to treat others like this but it is free speech. Its like a group of neo nazis protesting peacefully and without violence against others that you can pretty well guess who is. It is an atrocious thing to hate others based on their race, religion or even sex but they are speaking their opinions and that is one of the founding principles of our country.

We have to have tolerance for many things in these modern days but when does it become a fundamental right to promote and make it easy for people to hate others and ridicule things about them that are different. I think we should peacefully and with our own rights protest these types of sites by not going their even out of curiosity and definetely let our campuses and universities know what we feel about it.

If the campus lets people freely go their protest the fact that the campus is allowing this kind of racist and sexist behaviour on their servers that the entire student body is paying for. Your hard earned money that is paying for your childs education is going to a campus that allows the kinds of sites that we tell our kids to not go to and not to be a part of. Tell them you won't pay for them to allow students access to these sites, they can do it as part of their policy. They can make a rule to ban certain sites as part of their campus or university policy against hatred or racism, sexism or cruelty to others.

I understand it is free speech to be able to speak your mind, but is it the right thing to do. In the bigger picture we as human beings need to get along enough in this world to be able to evolve as people. If we hate and use our energy to put things down and make things worse how can we make things better on the planet we all live.

We have to get along, if we don't, wars happen.

Waiting

2008-03-18T13:22:00.000-07:00

Waiting for a PS3 game, but it won't be long. I have one on the way and a PS 2 game but they are not that good from the other reviews I have read. But this does not sway me from reviewing them on their own merit and deciding for myself how the games are. Stay tuned for that at my sites...

I also have some really neat high definition toys coming that will really add to my entertainment system. I'm getting an OPPO Upconverting DVD player and a Helios H4000 DVD PLayer for my wife. The Helios connects to a VGA monitor so I will have that for her in her craft room to watch movies on. She doesn;t really want to watch TV that much but does want to watch movies so I have these silly CRT monitors lying around so thought I would try to use them instead of just throwing them out. I hate to throw something that is still usefull but cannot seem to find much use for them. So I bought a DVD player that connects to the VGA of the monitor and now I'll see how it goes.

Watch my site for these and other interesting reviews at Associated Content or my site, Jeffs Reviews.

PlayStation 3, I Own Thee

2008-03-15T15:31:00.000-07:00

I bought my PlayStation 3 today. Now all I have to do is wait for some decent games. I really enjoy first person shooters but they are few and far between for this system, I love helicopter sims and flight sims but they are either non existant or rare and the other games are fun but nothing really thrills me like the PC games.

So please, Mr. PS3 game makers, make me some games that are worthy of the ownership of this $400 system.

Please...

Politics, sex & race

2008-03-14T05:56:00.000-07:00

Its very interesting following the race for the Presidency and all the feuding that race and sex has brought to it. I am not very politically motivated and I don't follow the dealings much but this is the top position in the country and its kind of hard not to notice.

I heard all the stir that Ferraro made and was dumbfounded when she stated the obvious and got all the guff about it. To say they will gain votes due to their race or sex is just stating a fact and not racist or sexist. People who cannot hold their tongue and jump the gun by throwing in those cards are just the ones we do not need to listen to.

We need to listen to realists who can say what everyone knows and is not too afraid to say it.

Geraldine Ferraro said what everyone is thinking and brought a common fact out in the open, we all know one candidate is not your white late middle aged guy and the other is not a guy, so what. Are they qualified for the job and will they do a better job than the previous one in office?

If they can gain a few votes by their race or sex, more power to them, it's better than using your affiliations with tax breaking lobbyists or corporate flunkies to gain votes.

We can all see what is plain about the two candidates like their race or sex, why do people seem shocked by the fact that they will gain votes because of it. If some people will only use thei sex or race as a qualifying factor in their choice for our next leader than the others voting on their qualifications and abilities will balance the whole mess out.

Its called democracy, get used to it, we have only been playing this game for how long now.

So Close, Yet So Far Away

2008-03-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

I am this close, $22 plus tax, from owning a PS3 and yet can't for the life of me get a Wii, XBox 360 or PSP game to review.

I took in some games, okay nine, to my local Gamestop to trade in and was only a couple of games away from getting the PS3. I have been saving up for a little while now and will be getting the latest and greatest in Blu Ray viewing excitement. Okay the PS3 may not be the best console but it does include a Blu Ray movie viewing thingy which will be the first high definition device in my house other than a TV. And the TV is not exactly the greatest.

I have, or actually my son bought it, a Westinghouse 19" TV but it doesn't exactly impress everyone here. Yes it is good but not much better than that as the darn digital reception here sucks. I live a half block from the railroad tracks and when a train goes by so does my reception, so much for the great digital TV revolution.

Okay so you can't have your high definition TV and watch it too. I just hope that I am not dissapointed by the PS3 and how well movies work on that, I have not been really all that impressed with many of the things that others are touting as the best thing since electricity twinkled down Ben's arm and he got the idea to put it through something else. I saw a HDDVD at Best BUy playing right along side a regular DVD and a Blu Ray and could not see all that much improvement, the TV settings could have made that much of a difference. They were on the same exact TV's but I think people are sometimes just plugging the more expensive stuff when they praise the high definition stuff.

Doctor's and Appointments

2008-03-05T17:08:00.000-08:00

I had an eye exam today and got some news I had been kind of expecting sooner or later, I'm getting old. Okay maybe the kind doctor did not say this out right but the "Your getting some early signs of cataracts and a little of this and that" is not "your getting old" but it amounts to the same thing.

Getting old means the body doesn't feel the same but the mind also does things as well. Memory goes and some things that used to be easy are tougher. I know I'm not that old but a few years ago I could get on a bike and tool around the neighborhood without problems but now when I get off the bike and walk up the steps to go inside sometimes the knee gives out and hurts. The carpel tunnel has not gotten worse but its there and some other small things have crept in here and there so yes, I am getting older.

When does old become a definite OLD, I suppose it means that you're wiser and have more answers to questions but maybe not everyone is wanting those answers from me yet. Old people used to be looked up at and admired for their wisdom and words and it just seems to be changing these days.

Today some kids just don't think the same way and it is a shame, some older people know a lot more than we do and just to find out some things from them is amazing. I enjoy talking with my wife's mother about some older stuff like when she was growing up and things she used to do, playing on the farm and growing up during the war years is fascinating and to hear about the common things like no indoor plumbing is fun. I totally understand how she has grown up to be so frugal and saves everything from those early years of growing up in the depression and during World War II when things were saved and re re reused.

Finding out these things from books or movies is just not the same, to hear about it from someone who has been there and done that means so much more. Advice is kind of like that as well, hearing about things from someone who is an "expert" doesn't mean as much but hearing it from someone who has done the same thing means so much more. My kids get the same thing but I understand more about it than when I was a kid. I tell my kids not to make the same mistakes I did but my wife and I know they will do some things that we did when we were young.

Advice is like that, for many it doesn't mean much unless the person we are getting it from has been there and done it before us to know what they are talking about.

And when it comes to giving advice be factual and easy, let the facts speak for themselves and realize something about giving advice, everyone has to make their own mistakes, its part of growing up.

LCD TV's

2008-03-02T20:08:00.000-08:00

RRR. I hate when I try to find something online and cannot find it because the manufacturer's just don't care. I have been shopping for an LCD TV for a few months and just cannot understand why no companies are plugging their smaller TV's and just the big ones.

Yeah, I know it has to do with profits but for all the people at all the forum's who are asking for smaller TV's and ratings on them I do not see why the companies cannot send out some better information and possibly review units to places like Consumer Reports or Cnet.

I would love to be able to get a few newer TV's about 19 or 20 inch and review them for a good basic comprehensive review of smaller TV's as no one really has them out there.

That one day every few years.

2008-02-29T21:19:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the one day that only happens every four years, Leap Day.

Strange how they can add up all those little problems in astroogical events and stellar drift and what not and say one extra day every four years equals it all out.

Makes one wonder if we could change things in our lives by just doing something totally different for one day and it could change four years. Maybe...

New Technology

2008-02-27T20:23:00.000-08:00

All the new technology and just not enough money to purchase it all.

I would love to be able to afford all the new kinds of stuff available today, but the pocket book just does not have enough in it. I did purchase a new monitor and am looking into a new TV but with all the new things coming out there just is not enough money to go around. I am saving up for a PS3, sort of, and will be getting the cheapest one available, the Spiderman one.

I get Wii and XBox 360 games to review from both the manufacturers and post on Associated Content as well as my part time writing gig at Game Chronicles and take these very gently used games to Gamestop for the trade in value. Although some games I have reviewed would make better doorstops than games they do add up and I am close to getting that PS3. If nothing else it will make a nice Blu-Ray disc player for my TV so I just can't wait to be all in for the current consoles. If you think this is great think again, as most of the XBox 360 games I have received have either gone to Gamestop or my son wants.

I just cannot get the hang of a first person shooter with that stupid controller. I am totally clueless as to why MS does not make a better one for FPS games or allow someone to make something that works just like a mouse and keyboard. Sure the XFPS does work pretty well but not as good as a mouse and keyboard so most games are just not the same on the XBox 360 for me as the PC.

Technology aside I think we need to have better quality stuff instead of more and in gaming this is certainly true. Why do publishers toss games out that are half done when they could make a killing by delaying it and making a really good game? Ours not to reason why, just to review and add up those points.

Have a great week.

Jeff

Jury duty pending

2008-02-24T17:36:00.000-08:00

I have jury duty this week, last one for my two month assignment. I got three letters and in my county you call in the night before and only go in if they call your number. The first letter I got I went in and answered a few questions from lawyers on each side but didn't get placed on a jury.

Two weeks later I didn't have to go in after the phone call but this last time I get to see tomorrow. It's a real interesting process and I think one that everyone who is a citizen should have to do, just to see how the process works. One comment I found on the Internet was everyone who is going through jury duty has no clue what is going on yet we are all there for the same thing, to decide the fate of someone else.

At least the county clerks, bailiffs and judges help you out while things are happening and even tell you if you not to come back or worry about anything unless you get another letter. The personal part of answering questions to the lawyers was no big deal but I found it funny that some people want to get out of jury duty so desperately when they have no idea what happens there.

Some people just don't know how good they have things, to be able to help the justice system out a little bit by a few hours or days of your time is no big deal when you consider the alternative, turn the tables and ask yourself this question.

Do you want your fate decided by people who just could not come up with a good enough exscuse to get out of jury duty?

I would rather have people there that feel a civic responsibility to decide something as important as the rest of my life.

It's the weekend, darn.

2008-02-23T06:36:00.000-08:00

I don't look forward to the weekends as much as I used to. I have a really odd schedule and it just never works out like I want to on the weekend.

During the week its like Christmas when the deliveries arrive and I get to open up that new gadget or gizmo and they just don't ship stuff on weekends, oh well.

I usually end up doing some catch up work or work at my wife's daycare to help them out, nothing much but things like hanging paper towell holders or today's job of hanging a new cash box on the wall and fixing a cabinet. I also get to install a new toy for the kids on a computer, its called a Comfy keyboard. It's a special keyboard that doesn't have numbers and letters but a phone, shapes and animals so kids have a neat computer game that is geared for toddlers and not older kids who understand their alphabet. I will install it and my wife can report on how much the kids like it.

In our town the local Walmart is starting a new store, a super Walmart and closing the smaller one, so big deals are to be had. The old store stopped stocking things a few weeks ago and they are trying to sell out most of the stock so they don't have to deal with moving things. Half the store is marked down in red and the rest will be going the same way soon so its going to be an interesting time at that store for a few weeks.

Well, I have to get ready to go to work at the daycare, bummer.

TV in the Future

2008-02-22T05:31:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning and thought about my evening last night and realized suddenly that I had seen the future of television and the family.

My family has a computer for everyone as well as a few TV's. I have two PC's almost side by side for my work and while one was running some benchmarks for an ATI 3870 graphics card from Visiontek I was watching old shows of Kitchen Nightmares with Chef Gordon Ramsey. My older son was watching some other shows on his computer while my wife did some work for her daycare on hers. My youngest son played or chatted on his computer, the oldest of the bunch with Win Xp but still useable, while he watched the HDTV.

This seperation of family members to watch TV on their computers or the bigger HDTV is how the family will be doing their evening entertainment in the very near future, if not already. Sure we will get together to watch the occasional movie together but we will also seperate and watch what each one wants in the comfort of their own room and perfectly contoured desk chair.

I enjoyed last evening and watching the show while my other computer chewed on graphics frame rate tests and eveyone else did their own thing according to their own tastes and wishes. I can see this happening all across America already but very soon this will be a common occurance in most homes as well. Everyone has different tastes and to be able to pick and choose exactly which show you want at the moment instead of the couple that are available from the local analog broadcast signals is great and I really have started to appreciate and enjoy the shows you can watch even if they are older and on a smaller screen than regular TV.

I can easily see this as what TV will be, no more having to settle on what the majority wants, you don't want to watch what Mom and Dad want just hop up to your room and pick a movie or show from the internet and enjoy. Cable TV and even Blockbuster will be a thing of the past or an internet subscription service that you stream videos and movies on. Actual DVD movies will be the ones you buy at Walmart or ones you make yourself from the downloaded content.

Just a thought.

Waiting Patiently

2008-02-20T09:14:00.000-08:00

Hello, and welcome to my blog, I intend to keep up on this more now that I have started my own website. I'll link this here and that there and all that stuff.

I have been really busy and with the big kickoff of my recent website and all the other reviewing I have been doing but I have let this slip into the cracks.

Currently I am doing some great reviews on some interesting products and have others on the way. I am receiving a new monitor that I purchased, UPS says it is out for delivery so I am waiting for the knock at the door. Waiting patiently, waiting, okay, maybe not so patiently.

Every time the UPS, Fed EX or DHL comes to the door its like Christmas all over again. I enjoy opening the products and getting my first look at things. I get that giddy feeling like I used to when a present was given to me and I couldn't wait to see what it is.

I have some great projects coming up like getting my website all in order and all my back reviews posted, but not all the ones from Associated Content. I started writing for them last year and did not include the non-exclusive for the articles so they own them. You can check them out on that site but my current ones will be duplicated on both sites. I will have more stuff to add to my Jeffs Reviews site such as product updates, problems with things over time and upcoming reviews so check back often to both.

Well, the day has already started well with a new faucet from Moen so I have other things to do.

Have fun.

New Computer

2007-02-05T04:18:00.000-08:00

Boy am I busy. I received my new computer and it is nice. When I was waiting for it to be made I would check out the site and dream about what it would be like to have such a better computer than my older one and saw the price of the processor that is one step higher than mine go down in price. When I was purchasiing the computer and finalizing the order the price difference between the AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ and the 5200+ was about a hundred dollars, now its $6. I asked the company about it and a very nice sales rep said the price went down, the supplier does that from time to time. So I unpack my computer plug er in and lo and behold, it has been upgraded to the better one. Thanks, CyberPower. The L2 cache is double the size, it works great. The processor is rated at 7.6 Ghz or so depending on the site you test at. I will not have to worry much about game requirements for some time., the main reason I upgraded to a better computer. It is really nice in games that are CPU hungry and one, Flight Sim X it rocks on. Well, its really cold here and I have to help the kids get off to school, -20 here in Minnesota. BRRR!!!

Chuckles and grins

2007-01-18T03:31:00.000-08:00

I recently heard about the problems that blogger Chuckles is having with his job. Apparently he used to work in a video store and after having a personnal visit by a celebrity he blogged about it. The celebrity is MSNBC's Tucker Carlson of CNN's Crossfire fame. The back and forth firestorm that is common after a blogger starts in on someone that is higher on the food chain of public opinion is a great example of why bloggers need to watch what they are doing. Never, ever mention someone that, as I said earlier ,is higher on the public food chain in a blog before considering the consequences. Yes, you can get page views but you can also get fired. I find it laughable that someone would expect nothing less than getting fired from a job where you start publicly mentioning day to day activities of a customer on a blog. Customers, whether they are the guy or girl next door or someone who has their own TV show deserve some kind of normal life and he is probably doing what he thinks is right. The store just wants to keep things civil and the blogger, Chuckles, is getting what he may deserve by not thinking about his actions. I feel that no matter how much a person like a celebrity puts themselves out in the public eye they still deserve and have every right to expect a personal life and not be hounded by reporters. To be blogged and hounded on the internet is just as bad and you get what you deserve when you start in on someone without thinking of the consequences.

The Big Day, for me.

2007-01-11T06:16:00.000-08:00

Hello, I am so excited. I know it's just a computer but I ordered my new system from CyberPower last night. I ordered the AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ with just about nothing else on the thing. It has the ECS KA3 MVP motherboard with only 512 mb ram and a pretty decent HDD and DVD drive. I will be getting other components to test on the system hence a pretty barebones system. As I continue to get more stuff I will probably be putting my own systems together but for now I wanted to get a good basic computer for my writing and reviewing hardware and video games. Now I just have to wait and wait and wait.

Years End

2006-12-27T20:09:00.000-08:00

Well, its goodbye to 2006 and hello 2007. My writing career is hitting a new stride with my reviewing games, hardware and other PC stuff. I will be purchasing e new computer soon but for now am working on getting some things for my old one. I can't wait but waiting is going to have to be a part of it. I have to get my taxes back and I won't be getting them till the end of January. Taxes are going to ba another interesting thing this year with my son going to college but H&R Block is always easy to work with and I can't see it being much of a problem. I sure don't understand why people gripe about doing their own taxes when it is so easy with the software nowadays. So far we have had no snow to speak of here in Minnesota but don't count on it to continue, we will soon have plenty of the white fluffy stuff. It's nice not to have to shovel the drive to get the wife off to work but I know this won't last. I hope everyone reading this is having a nice year end and can look forward to theupcoming year with hope and happiness.

Merry Christmas

2006-12-25T06:53:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas

May your times today and in the upcoming year be happy and full of fond memories. May you rise to meet each new challenge with a smile on your lips and a song in your heart. May your days be filled with laughter and friendship, joy and peace.

Do one good deed in the upcoming year and you will find that it is returned to you in a way that you do not expect. Think nothing of yourself in this deed but only of others and do not expect anything in return. Then you will receive the return but only if the act of goodwill was selflessly given.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

New Computer

2006-12-21T08:40:00.000-08:00

I think I have decided to go with CyberPower for my new desktop computer. They offer the best selection for the exact things I want. I am trying to get the best processor, best motherboard for upcoming video upgrades and memory but not all the other stuff and most companies offer the complete package or lower versions. They usually have their web sites set up so you get a good rounded package and not like what I want. Oh well, I will continue to look but I do want to get a good CPU, the AMD Athon 64 x2 5000+ looks to be about the best for my needs. I want a good high end cpu but I don't want to overclock it so I am better off with the AMD instead of the Pentium, the Pentium is more expensive as well. I won't be overclocking my PC for several reasons, one is I don't want to change the system for my reviews and overclocking would not be a fair way to judge many of the things I review. Another reason is I don't trust myself and fooling with the overclocking that much. I am not so much afraid that I'll burn my computer out but it does take a toll on the life span of the computer, especially the CPU so I don't want to have to buy a new one in two years. I expect to get a few years out of any system I buy now, at least three or four. I want to be able to at least use it for some games in a few years. By then I will be far enough along in my reviewing that getting another system will be a part of my business.

Memory Upgrade

2006-12-20T01:53:00.000-08:00

Is your computer slow starting up, loading web browser pages on Internet Explorer or loading programs? You may need memory that is an easy installation and fix for a slower computer. You need to know a few things before upgrading and the most important part of this is to make sure if you can install more memory and then to get the right kind. Your bios will tell you what type of memory you have and how much. When you press the power button on your computer enter the Bios of your system before Windows boots. Different computers use a different key to start into the Bios, F1, F2, F10 or another combination may be used. Check with your computer manufacturer to make sure of the exact key along with the type of memory your computer needs. The Bios will also list this type but you should make sure you get the right type. You will need to open your computer and possibly remove one stick to replace it with another but this is very easy to do. Sometimes you may need to move components inside such as sliding the rack holding the drives but this is also easy. Do not let the insides of your computer scare you into not upgrading it or making changes to things. Researching this you will find plenty of easy to follow guide to help you, but you can upgrade your own computer instead of paying someone else to do it. Just make sure you fully understand what you are doing and unplug the computer before you start.

Racism and exactly what I mean.

2006-12-19T05:43:00.000-08:00

I just read a very good, even though controversial, article on Associated Content called White Discrimination: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/101507/white_discrimination.html
One thing that he points out and is, I think, very correct with many people and their talk of racism is they identify themselves first with their ethnic background and whether people discriminate against them because of that. African American is the term he used, why not call yourself American of African descent to show first and foremost you are an American and your race doesn't matter so much as the fact that you are a proud American. I think people use their ethnic background for their own purposes and often use this to define who they are. Myself, I try to use my brain for something other than hatred or conclusion jumping by talking and getting to know the person, I see the person as someone standing in front of me. I listen to them and hear what they have to say and I don't judge them on their appearance, race, or sex. I know people will say this is not true and you are racist because of the things you say. You couldn't be more wrong, just look at my wedding party and see one of my groomsmen, an American of African descent who was a coworker and friend when we worked in the United States Air Force. One thing that I see often and people use it to their advatage when they want, they use their skin color, heritage and other attributes that they cannot change to define who and what they are instead of using their morales, abilities and intelligence to show who and what they are in their heart and soul. Wouldn't this world be a much better place if people used the heart and soul to show who they are instead of using their race as a way to show how everyone else has put them down. If they did their best, forgave those who are not as good as they are and had a truly generous heart they wouldn't have to spout racism.

Politically Correctness

2006-12-18T06:21:00.000-08:00

I know the words I used in the title are not correct, but it's my blog and there is nothing you can do about it except complain or go elsewhere.

I hate political correctness. It's really very simple, live and let live, let bygones be bygones. Whatever you want to call it, I just do not like it when people start spouting the political correctness card when a matter of race, religion or any of the other gazillion things come up and people get their dander up.

If some comedian flew off the handle and made some stupid comment, then apologized afterwards fine. He should be sorry for saying something that hurt someone else. But it should end there. Get over it.

He should not have to talk to the "leaders" of that political movement to try and patch relations and smooth feathers. He can move on with life and it will soon be forgotten.

When people of one race, nationality or ethnic background keep bringing it up, they are using there grouping against their own cause. Why do people have to keep bringing the stuff back up and rubbing salt in the wound. Rubbing nothing, some are grabbing the bag and pouring it on.

If you want to make a statement the fewer words you say the more it will be remembered. A speech is remembered not for its words but for its content. Do you remember the last sermon that a pastor gave, probably not. But if he got up there and said, don't be bad. I bet you'd remember that one. Same thing here.

The people that use race or whatever and keep saying others are putting them down, that may be true, but how much. How many people go out of their way to use race against others. Some would say it happens everyday and in every situation, they are probably right to some extent.

I heard something the other day and I do have to agree, everybody is prejudiced to some degree. Like it or not we all are. Not to the same degree and with a majority of people it is not something that affects anybody in any way but we all are to some extent.

Now some people also use this prejudice for their own ends and to further the cause they see as right. When someone tells us that people are doing so many things because of racism it gets to be a bit ridiculous. Racism was not so much a factor in so many things as some would like you to believe.

I am also getting tired of those that are continuing to cry for help after they have long since shown that they do not deserve it. I know there are people who need help and who deserve it. I am not going to say who does and who does not deserve help. I have lived all my life helping others more than many people. I give when I can, help out when I can and don't ask for anything in return. I just cannot sit back and watch as so many people use the system and our generosity to their advatage without at least saying something.

Take Katrina; racism was not the factor some would have you believe it was. I am sure at some time people got more help because they were in the better neighborhoods or lived near the rich end of town, but everyone got help.

It is now time to say Katrina is over, we need to move on. We are going to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start over.

I cannot stand the ones who are still whining that they did not get the help that they should and they need more. The storm is long over, the seas are calm and skies are clear. It is now time to get a job, work hard and make something of yourself.

For those that are still complaining that they did not get help for the storm and aftermath, you need to stop holding out that hand and use that hand to do something. Swing a hammer, put groceries into a bag or shake hands at the store doors. But do something instead of holding that hand out for more.

Email Hatred & New Computer

2006-12-17T02:30:00.000-08:00

It's really early, 4:30 AM and I couldn't sleep with my cold. I checked my email and found 14 junk mails waiting for me, the usual garbage of get a bigger *, by using our new meds, probably make it fall off instead of get bigger. Or the mortage ones that are just trying to get your info.
I just hate junk email with a passion. I get all kinds of junk, but it does go into my junk email folder. I wish the rules for Outlook would work better. Most of the time I set a rule and it doesn't work until I run it. No automatic running and the stuff I really want gone doesn't permanently delete. But you have to live with the good and the bad I guess.

I'm looking into getting a new computer, a really good one. I have an AMD Athlon 2600+ with a Nvidia 6600 video card. With my writing reviews and such I need to get something better and was thinking of a Maingear Prelude, AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+, 2 Gig memory and a Nvidia 7950 video card. I won't be getting anything else in the way of audio cards or anything because I'll get to review better stuff than I can afford. All I need to do is wait for taxes and hope my kid's college doesn't lower our tax return. He started college this past year and with the deductions for all that I'm not sure what that will do to my tax status.

Christmas is coming and I am looking forward to a nice dinner. My relatives on my wife's side will all be together for a day and we will all exchange gifts and have a nice dinner. We all get to pick names and each adult gives one gift to another. Keeps the cost down for everyone. My son, the one in college is starting this fun tradition and doesn't really like it. Before he got to get gifts from everyone and all of a sudden he has to throw his name in the hat and pay for a gift for one of us. No one said growing up was fair. He's learning things he never thought he would as an adult, stuff not taught in college as classes.

My family has two dogs, peacefully snoozing on the couch at the moment. Some nights the springer spaniel border collie mix that is my older sons will sleep with him but sometimes she will stay on the couch. The little cairn terrier usually sleeps on the couch or on our bed. She will sneak up to our room about ten minutes after we go to bed and nose her way into our room. She is so cute. When I eat carrots or sesame sticks she goes nuts, begs and whines with this sick sounding bark that is more of a huff than a real bark. Her breed isn't supposed to bark when they hunt so they have an inbred thing with not barking for things they want. And she really wants sesame sticks and carrots. The other one could care less about the sesame sticks but they both love carrots, go figure.

General PC help

2006-12-15T11:06:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine has been having problems with their computer and I will be doing more work on it over the upcoming Christmas break. I found a junk load of spyware and adware stuff on the computer when I had it at home and ran AdAware, SpyBot and a few other programs.

I cannot stress enough the importance of a firewall program, spyware and adware blockers and a general security suite. I use Trend Micro's Internet Security Suite 2007 but have also used AVG antivirus that is free. Just google and you will find some very good ones. I would also suggest going to CNET.com and the section they have on programs for internet security to find free and trial versions before you spend your hard earned money on one.

If your interested I have some good articles at my CP Page at Associated Content with some more information about spyware, adware and viruses.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/1142/jeff_gedgaud.html