Western Digital WDG1U3200 My Book Essential Edition 320GB External Hard Drive Installation:  Couldn’t be easier. With the included USB cable, it’s as simple as connecting it to an open USB 2.0 port on your computer, and plugging it in. The drive automatically starts and stops based on your computer being on or off, so you never have to worry about on/off switches on the drive itself. A handy green circular LED on the front tells you whether the drive is powered on, and will flash during heavy disk activity.

Form Factor: In the style of a book on your bookshelf, the Western Digital My Book drives are easily stacked or placed side by side on your computer desk, or even on a shelf. The top of the device looks like a cheese-grater, with numerous slit-like openings to allow for excellent air flow and heat dissipation. Rubber feet keep the "book" secure on your desk.

Performance: If you aren’t planning to frequently connect and disconnect the device from your computer, in Windows XP, check the device configuration for the drive and be sure the performance (write caching) option is set. You’ll enjoy the improved performance you get from the drive. Just like many hard drives, this one powers down after lack of use, but spins up quickly when you access it again.

Included Software: On the drive you will find some google.com tools (Picasa, Desktop, Toolbar), which you can install or ignore. Most people have this software anyway, so I personally ignored it. The drive also contains the Western Digital backup software, which you might want to copy over to an internal drive and keep, before formatting this one, and I do recommend that. The drive comes pre-formatted as FAT32, but I prefer to have NTFS, so a quick format was the way to go.

Other Options: Western Digital also offers a Premium Edition of this product, that includes some additional features, namely a FireWire port, and an additional green circle on the front that meters drive capacity. Frankly, I don’t need to know the drive capacity visually, and USB 2.0 is fast enough for my needs. The price difference is not huge, so make that determination for yourself.

Summary: This is a quiet, fast, and attractive looking drive, that will add significant offline storage to any computer or laptop system. Western Digital is known for superior technology, and it’s the only kind of drive that I buy for my computers.

Treo 650

The PalmOne Treo 650 is a PalmOS based SmartPhone. Basically it is a Palm PDA with a phone, so you don’t have to carry multiple devices. The phone functionality is very usable and performs well you can dial from the phone or using the numeric keypad. One of the most desirable feature is the capability to sync with MS Outlook, Apple iCal and other systems include PalmOne Desktop.

Features

• Bluetooth
• Memory Card
• Touch Screen
• Outlook Sync
• Calendar
• Contacts
• Memo
• Backlit QWERTY Keyboard

Other

• The power management features and battery life is good
• Zap - comes with a nice shoot’em up game

Missing

• Wifi capability
• Voice recording software
• Voice dialing

Anecdotes, Experiences, Opinions, Comments

• Elena Falcone: The lack of voice recording ability is a real miss, as is the relatively slow web browser.  Despite these shortcomings, I remain amazed at how much it does, the great programs that have been designed for it, how lost I am without it, and the structural durability.

Apple MacBook MA700LL/A Engadget reviewed a laptop that is a clone of a Macbook today, its priced at $1047 if you include xp home. The lenient  writeup prompted me to do a breakdown of the incredible value inherent in the Macbook.

A few years ago you needed $2,000 to look at a mac, in fact you heard $4,000 as a starting price when you spoke to a mac sales person, for that $2,000 price you got features and build quality not seen in other computers (Vaios came close). As with all high priced items, copies and emulations were there for half the price to grab the buyer who just wanted the look.
Nowadays,  Apples prices are the lowest of ANY computer maker, feature for feature, lower than Dell, lower than Compaq and lower than DosPara (!). Michael correctly pointed out the poorer firewire port on this, lack of dvi out and the power hungry (but slower) amd chip. But lets look at what else we get in our macbook:

1. Bluetooth
2. Wireless 802.11N
   
3. Magsafe connector
4. Six Hour Battery Life
5. Stunning Screen (Everyone knows what Pc users feel when they see the bright screen of a mac)
6. Popular New keypad
7. Two Finger to scroll touchpad
8. The Best Operating System in the World
9. OPTICAL Audio In and Out
   
10. Gigabit Ethernet
    
11. Small Bezel
12. Allure
13. Attractiveness
14. Ability to run Windows & OSX
    

Incredible power efficiency (17watts idle and 53watts at 100% on both cores with bluetooth and wireless-n blazing). Give each of those a $50 value (which is a bargain for completely integrated optical audio, 802.11n, gigabit ethernet, core duo chip, etc) and its plain to see that any of the  Macbooks is a far greater value than this laptop, In fact I’m going out to stock up on  Macbooks before they raise the prices!

Variations and Alternatives

Definitely consider this this cheaper variation as well.

The Macbook is also available in black with a $100 rebate instead of $75


As of Jan 2007, Adobe (Creative Suite and old Macromedia web apps) applications are not available for any Mac with the Intel processor. So if you want to upgrade to a new MacBook or iMac, remember that you cannot purchase Adobe software that will run natively on it. As with Microsoft Office applications, Adobe products run in emulation ("Rosetta") on Intel Macs. Performance of software running in Rosetta will obviously not be as good as native software.

Lexar JumpDrive Lightning

Lexar markets several USB flash drives with the JumpDrive Lightning name.  Their main selling point is their performance and stylish stainless steel case.  It comes in 4 GB, 2 GB, 1 GB, and 512 MB sizes.  The larger the drive, the faster the performance.  The 4 GB model sells for less than $100 and the price drops quickly from there.

There are several negative reports about the cap being too easy or too hard to remove.

Links

• Official page at Lexar
• January 2005 press release
• AnandTech: USB Flash Drive Roundup - 10/2005 (specific page)
• BleadingEdge review 07/2005

Anecdotes, Experiences, Opinions, Comments

• Phillip M. Stewart: I ordered the 4 GB model (JDP4GB-231) based on its read and write performance results I saw in an Anandtech article. I also like the stylish case.  No problems with the cap.

Zune (Digital Media Player)

"Zune" is a brand name.  It currently covers:

• A digital music device similar in design to the iconic iPod with differences in screen size, preloaded content, software, the ability to share music wirelessly, and the presence of a built-in radio tuner.

• An online music service called "Zune Marketplace" which offers a-la-carte (single-song or album) downloads of purchased music (similar to iTunes Store) or a subscription service allowing "all you can eat" music (like Rhapsody, Yahoo Music, Napster, and others.)

• Software which runs on your PC (no Mac version has been announced) which accesses the above online music service, also branded as "Zune Marketplace."

• The Digital Rights Management scheme used by all of the above services.  Note that this scheme is not compatible with iTunes "FairPlay" or subscription services which use the "PlaysForSure" DRM scheme.  For lack of information, we will refer to the scheme used by Zune as "Zune DRM."

How is it Different From an iPod?

The Zune device has 30 Gigabytes of storage, comes in white, black, and brown and has a 3-inch screen which changes orientation to show video.  It also includes a wireless transceiver for syncing media or sharing music and an FM radio receiver, neither of which are native iPod features.

"iPod" covers everything from the Shuffle to the Nano to the iPod Video which vary in size, storage capacity, and screen size (where applicable) and come in a variety of colors.  iPod colors currently include: white, black, blue, green, pink, turquoise, and custom schemes such as the black and red U2 iPod.  iPods devices are available with storage capacities from 512 Megabytes to 80 Gigabytes as of this writing.

An iPod stores music you rip from CDs or purchase from the iTunes Media Store (ITMS).  Only an iPod or iTunes software can play media you purchase from the iTunes Media Store due to a Digital Rights Management scheme branded "FairPlay."  See the Digital Rights Management (DRM) section for a comparison of DRM schemes.

Zune offers an identical model with regard to media you purchase from Zune Marketplace.  It adds a feature where you may share music you purchase with other Zune users with the limitation that they may listen to a shared track three times or for three days, whichever comes first.  Thereafter, the track remains bookmarked so that they may download it from their own Zune account or delete it as they choose. Zune uses its own Digital Rights Management scheme.

How the Zune deals with sharing non-licensed content (such as .mp3 files) is still unclear.  An early comment by a developer said all shared content follows the 3 days / 3 plays rule.  Clarifications since then have said otherwise.

Zune Marketplace offers a second extension to the iTunes model where a user may subscribe for a monthly fee and download and listen to any track at any time without paying an a la carte charge.  Other restrictions may be part of the subscription service; similar subscription services "expire" music after a certain amount of time or limit your ability to burn it to CD.  Details are still emerging on Zune Marketplace.

Neither an iPod nor a Zune play content branded with a Digital Rights Management scheme called PlaysForSure.  Some services which use PlaysForSure to offer subscription content include Rhapsody, Yahoo Music, Napster, and others.  Subscription music from these services will not play on an iPod or on a Zune.  See Digital Rights Management (DRM) for further discussion on this topic.  See The Debate Over PlaysForSure DRM for information specific to Zune’s lack of support for the PlaysForSure DRM scheme.

Why Does it Come in Brown?

Reaction has varied to the choice of brown as the third color for the Zune device.  Those who approve refer to it as feeling "classic" like 70’s era stereo equipment.  Those who disapprove refer to it as ugly or clueless of their market.

More Information about Zune

• Digital Rights Management (DRM)
• The Debate Over PlaysForSure DRM
• Zune History and Context

Warlords Battlecry II

A surprisingly enjoyable classic real-time strategy game with action role-playing game elements. This game is very similar to WarCraft II (including even the tone of the worker responses). That being said, it is a good implementation of a tried and true formula, and the necessity to develop your hero and its entourage from level to level is really addictive. Another fun aspect of the game is the presence of "Titans" - singleton units you can build towards the end of the technology tree. These lumbering ceatures can destroy an enemy tower in two blows. Also fun are the air units, like the Human dragon and pegasus. There are no naval units in the game.

 

Play Hints

Play at no higher than Normal the first time you play a campaign... it will seem too easy when you play the "expect light resistance" scenarios for a while, but you need to do some serious leveling up before you enter even "expect moderate resistance" scenarios.

As the Human race, one way to win the initial levels is to set your barracks to auto-produce pikemen, get all the pikemen improvements, and then systematically pick out one gold mine after the other, converting it and building some towers to defend it.

This will not work on the moderate levels, where you really do need to bring a serious entourage with your heroes; ideally build up some White Mages that you can set to be "Magic Defenders" for each other so they’ll auto-heal the whole group.

It can be hard to figure out what your "command" skill is good for - it gives you more points to take more or stronger units of your retinue into battle.

Be careful not to spend your time taking out a weak close enemy while a more distant enemy grows ever more powerful (there is at least one level in the single-player campaign where focusing on the close enemy is tempting...).

• Beware an enemy bulk attack if there are two or more enemies on the map, like 12 knights - don’t overextend yourself.
• Units regain hit points twice as fast in towers.
• In a long battle, nothing is more important to build than the building that increases your mining efficiency - it pays dividends many times over what it costs then.
• Sometimes you can take out an enemy with a single daemon if you send him straight to that corner (but beware of overextending yourself if there are multiple enemies).
• Observe if your enemies attack each other - if they do, build up your base defenses solid and incrementally gain more. If they don’t the level is much more challenging.

Fun Facts

• You take the hero you built in the single-player campaign into the multi-player games - nice incentive and transition.
• "Dragon fear" is a very fun feature which also occurs as "Titan fear" and "deamon fear" by the way - units appear with one or two red or white spheres and run away rather than attack.
• The tutorial hero was sure made to sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger, so does the Sirian, the human Titan unit.
• Nice touch that you don’t have to have workers going to and from mines (once "converted" they generate resources constantly, just like the tech buildings in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2.
• The graphics look like 1998 though the game came out in 2002 - what gives? They’re functional but really basic, for example, there is no animation of buildings in progress.
• Has side quests and "sidekicks" that you can take with you similar to Diablo II.
• The medieval music is mood-setting and pretty decent but you can mercifully turn it off and you will after a few hours of play.
• The game on Normal seems way too easy - the enemies wait for you to attack, so just get to a Level 5 palace, get a dragon or two and take them out.
• Lacks some love in details, such as showing a crossed-swords icon for doing a conversion, walking feet for moving an eagle, the go-into-tower icon is an iron clove all of which needlessly leads to confusion.
• I swear the stable look is translated in detail from Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings.
• Units leave footprints in the snow, such as my favorite NPCs the penguins.
• If you walk straight down your character may zigzag in 45 degree angles like an idiot.
• Eagles can build buildings! This is more likely an oversight than game design I’m guessing...
• Heroes seem to be able to convert buildings from an unrealistic distance (ok, so converting a building is inherently unrealistic, but you know what I mean).
• The "new armies are available" sounds wrong "new unit types available" would be more accurate.
• At least in the first three levels on normal mode there seems to be no point in ever building a knight or archer - your hero, pikemen, catapults, and one or a few dragons seem like enough.
• It seems like only the gold resource is an actual limitation in practice, you always seem to have enough of the others.
• Do we really need four resources here? Well, at least if the resource buildings are close to each other as they often are converting one mine will auto-convert the others.
• It seems like you always have to build all the buildings from scratch at least in camapign mode. Since you’re always doing the same thing this gets old fast - what about the building queue concept from the Civilization series?
• "Diseased" units do not re-generate hit points walk very slowly - White Mages can cure them.
• The most fun is to build up a custom entourage and take them with you, rather than mass-spawning ant-like troops and overwhelming the computer.
• I’ve seen it rarely, but the thunder and lightning effects are very well done.
• The waypoint system works very well, so does making a single unit build a number of buildings in succession (use the Shift key).
• You can set units to many different "attitudes" including roaming the map independently - doing that with Eagles really helps if you have to track down that one last enemy unit in a corner somewhere.
• You can play the game in 5 different game speeds, so you can slow down (and even stop) the game to give more precise orders in the heat of battle.

Useful Under-Advertised Keyboard Shortcuts

• ’a’ then left-clicking a destination lets you tell a unit to travel somewhere and attack units in the way (as opposed to blindly get killed by them which is the standard behavior when you send a unit on its way - maybe this should be the default...)

Nitpicks

• Like in some games in the Command & Conquer series, you sometimes have to painstakingly find the very last crossbowman standing under a tree somewhere to be credited with a win - would be nice if the computer opponents resigned.
• If you build buildings too close to each other units will get stuck between them.
• The transition between "light resistance" and "medium resistance" is very sharp.
• Generally, there always seems to be quite some time spent building up your base and then mopping up during every level.
• It may seem impossible to go into stone mines but you can, it’s just that the clickable area is really tiny.
• Pathfining is generally OK on the open maps but in the Serin Jungle level in particular enemy troops can stuck in big swarms.
• The Hero Spell user interface for allocating points can be confusing - you have to go left to right to satisfy the preconditions.
• From a sheer managability standpoint, fewer more powerful units are easier to control than many cheap ones.
• The fog of war lets you see new buildings and a change of ownership in mines once you have explored territory (even when there are none of your units or buildings nearby now). This may well be intentional rather than a bug, but it is, umm, odd.
• Unless you maybe play in the slowest of the five game speeds, there is simply no way in a battle to think of all the spells you could be using, so I never end up using more than three at most.

Differences From Warlords Battlecry

• The addition of the very fun titans.
• The dropping of any pretense of a storyline and the replacement introduction of the strategic map of provinces to conquer.
• The addition of the Fey, Dark Dwarves and Daemon factions.
• You have to "convert" a mine over time rather than just touching it.

External Reviews (highest quality ones listed first)

• The Demo at Adrenaline Vault
• GameSpy Review
• IGN Review
• Adrenaline Vault Review
• Game Nation TV Review
• Armchair Empire review

Other External Links

• Hints and Cheats from GameFAQ
• Sounds Advice from the Gamer’s Temple

Westinghouse LVM-37w3 LCD Monitor Can serve as a 1080p (highest HDTV resolution) television set (but note that it has no built-in TV tuner of any kind); people also report using it as a superb computer monitor.

Note that various vendor pages disagree as to the lamp life of the set (50,000 versus 60,000 hours).

A (detachable) stand is included with the set.


Vendor’s Pages - Where To Buy

• http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000EYZ994
• http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202 790596&loc=111 ($924.08 total if you live in WA, including $100 coupon)
• http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId =7749653&st=1080p&lp=8&type=product&cp=2&id=1 1 40394400806
• Sam’s club has it for ~1,150 including shipping: https://www.samsclub.com/eclub/main_checkout. jsp?BV_SessionID=_SC_2030978090.1167770066_CS _ &BV_EngineID=ccciaddjkgklmmgcfkfcfkjdgoodflg. 0 &stg=
• newegg.com has this monitor for $1,060 shipped: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Ite m=N82E16889234001

Reference

• Manufacturer’s Manual   (PDF)
• http://www.crutchfield.com/S-OunzZx9N8IN/cgi- bin/ProdView.asp?i=647LVM37W3 (out of stock, but great information - look for the "Crutchfield Hands-On Research" tab)
• CNET Review   http://reviews.cnet.com/Westinghouse_LVM_37w3 _LCD_flat_panel_display_37/4505-6482_7-319485 3 1.html

 

Cradle Of Splendor

Speculative science fiction book by Patricia Anthony that mostly takes place in Brazil in current times. It is one of the various books that portray Brazil as being a potential super-power in the near future. One of the most interesting aspects of this book is its very good portrayal of the Brazilian culture in a different way, focusing on its lack of trust and interest in the government, belief in voodoo-like powers and general country-wide confusion.

The title of the book is based on the beginning of the second part of the National Anthem of Brazil: "Lying eternally in a cradle of splendor..." (literal translation quoted from the book).

LITTLE green (Compact Carpet Cleaner)

Easy to carry, this compact device much beats having to rent a bulky carpet shampoo cleaner from the supermarket. We always keep it around and filled (we have the 1425P model). And, somehow, it’s near-Apple stylish as well.

Also, the official cleaning solution for it costs only about $3 (at the Silverdale, WA, Target at least) - some other manufacturers try to rip you off on the price of the supplies (in the spirit of "give away the razor, make the profit on the razor blades" and "give away the printer, make the profit on ink").

External Links

• Manufacturer’s Page

Planet Bike Beamer 5 White Led Bike Headlight

A somewhat pricey but superb flashlight for mounting on a bike handlebar.

With two fresh AAs, gives enough light to bike in the dark up to about 25 mph.

Batteries last an amazingly long time, the flashlight is very sturdy, and rain proof.

Also, the way it attaches to the handlebar is very solid, and easy to remove and put on a different bike.

Finally, it is a great all-around non-bicycling flashlight as well, and fits easily in a pocket.

External Links

• http://ecom1.planetbike.com/3033.html

Omen (Movie Series) In the Omen series of films, audiences are asked to take as gospel a contemporary interpretation of the coming of the Antichrist in the Book of Revelation.

Released in 1976, The Omen introduced audiences to a young boy with an angelic face and a demonic heart. His name, Damien, became synonymous with evil, and the film spawned two theatrical sequels, a television movie, several best-selling books and a television pilot, as well as a feature-length documentary that takes you inside one of Hollywood’s most fantastic fright-film franchises, from the strange incidents that plagued the cast and crew to the resurgent interest in the Book of Revelation and the occult (The Omen Legacy (2001) starring Jack Palance, Lance Henriksen).

The Omen saga began with an American ambassador in Britain who, out of love for his wife, allows a hospital priest to replace their dead baby with another child whose mother has died in childbirth. The couple name him Damien and raise him as their own, only to find sinister events revolve around him - he is the Antichrist.

Thirty years ago Gregory Peck and Lee Remick appeared in the original version. Michael Gambon and Mia Farrow star in a 2006 remake by Twentieth Century Fox.

All of the Omen films link the biblical text’s prophecies on the beginning of Armageddon to modern-day real-life horrors. The 2006 remake references September 11, the War on Terror, tsunamis).

John Moore, the director the remake in 2006, said he remade The Omen because he thought it relevant to today. It is also relevant to the fact that the present government in the USA is out-socializing the previous administration by more than double and growing (in social spending alone). The deadly dogmas of socialism and self-sacrifice are still growing all over the world.

David Seltzer’s scripts are well-researched in the sense that he relates the story to actual references in the Bible. Damien: Omen II shows the now teenaged Damien Thorne militarily enrolled. Damien is similar to Stalin, Mao or the leader of the NSGWP, in that who is he (including anyone in Damien’s adoptive family and his classmates) who suspects the truth or gets in the way. This sequel raises some interesting questions about the nature of free will (can the antichrist deny his birthright?). This film shows Damien falling into a gory series of increasingly horrid atrocities and deaths. Jerry Goldsmith (who won an Oscar for his work on the first film in the series) adds another fittingly ominous score. It is a competent sequel but not equal to the blockbuster original.

In Omen III: The Final Conflict, the power of evil is no longer in the hands of a child. The now adult Antichrist plots to eliminate his future divine opponent while a cabal of monks plot to stop him. The Christ-child has been born again, on the Angel Isle, England. The plan for Damien is simple, find the male children born on the specified day, and kill them all.

In Omen IV: the Awakening, the terror continues. Damien Thorn is no longer the terror, but his prophecy is reborn in a mysterious girl named Delia, who is adopted by two attorneys, Gene & Karen York. When Karen realizes her baby was born under suspicious circumstances, she hires a private investigator to find Delia’s real parents. A series of bizarre accidents occur, and Karen begins to suspect everyone of conspiring against her as she unravels the truth about her baby.

The Times reported that, on being told about The Omen’s reinterpretation of the Book of Revelation, Timothy Bradshaw, a scholar of Christian doctrine at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, expressed concern, saying that young people were growing up unaware of the Bible and its teachings. He said "Speculative twaddle is getting ingrained into the popular mind. It is very worrying." "There has never been a more salient time to remind people that evil is neither a concept nor a theory," he said. "It has a human face. In just the past four years alone, the world has been hit with devastating events - political, natural and man-made. One can’t help but notice a certain momentum."

The Omen’s worldwide release on June 6 (or 6.6.06) follows the world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival of The Da Vinci Code.

Apple iPod nano

The latest release in Apple’s popular iPod family, replacing the iPod Mini as a portable music player for people who want 1-4 gigs of music.  Because of its small size, its screen and case are reportedly easily susceptible to damage.

Tips and Tricks

• to turn on, press Center
• to turn off, press and hold Play/Pause
• to toggle the backlight, press and hold Menu
• to reset, press and hold both Center and Menu

External References

• The Ipod Wikia site
• The Apple Ipod Features page

Yu Yu Hakusho: Tournament Tactics

This game is pretty good for what it is: a basic tactics game. The characters and moves are based upon the same-named popular manga. Based upon the tried and true plotline of a bunch of fighters going to compete in a tournament to determine the best fighters in the underworld. Your characters battle their way across a few maps with a battle each step along the way. The enemies aren’t that tough, but the animations are generally ok and it has the normal rpg lure of developing and customizing characters to your whim. Yu Yu Hakusho: Tournament Tactics is a reasonably fun timesink. 

The gameplay is quasi-turn based with each action you perform taking a set amount of time. More powerful moves take more time and quicker characters perform actions in less time. Damage is roughly divided into melee and spirit. Spirit attacks offering greater damage and range, but at the cost of drawing against your limited spirit points. Melee attacks offer lower time costs and expending zero spirit points.

The battle tactics reminds one of Final Fantasy Tactics, albeit shallower gameplay. The most strategic elements are selecting your 5 fighters for each battle. There are other decisions you can make, like selecting items and their starting position, but they aren’t that big a deal.

Thankfully, the game has a definite ending in all regards. You win the tournament by killing Younger Togoru. However, there is bonus boss level if you are that type of person. ;) However, you have to max all your players first. (Your players max out at 50,000 experience points/Level 32.) The bonus boss level is anticlimactic and not all that interesting.

External Links

• Manufacturer’s Home Page
• Wikipedia Entry

Volkl T-Rock

Volkl's T-Rock ski is intended to be a 'quiver of one' for telemark and AT skiers. With its 87mm waist it's on the wide side of mid-fat, but it's quick to go edge to edge. The T-Rock is stiff both laterally and torsionally and responds well to powerful skiers with big boots. It floats well in powder but holds to ice like a claw.

The T-Rock is built on the same platform as Volkl's Karma and Queen Attiva alpine skis, although it lacks the Karma's metal topsheet and twin tip.